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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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Cornell University Library 
 JC153.H68 L6 1894 
 
 Leviathan: 
 
 3 1924 030 436 533 
 
 olin 
 
LEVIATHAN 
 
 OR 
 
 Tnji ..lATTER, FORM AND POWER OF A 
 
 COMMONWEALTH, ECCLESIASTICAL 
 
 AND CIVIL 
 
 THOMAS HOBBES 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HENRY MORLSY 
 
 LL.D,, PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT 
 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON 
 
 ^'OURTH EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 'GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL 
 ;^feNCHESTER AND NP:\\' YORK 
 
MORLEY'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY. 
 
 4- 
 
 5- 
 
 *'7- 
 8. 
 
 la 
 II. 
 
 12. 
 
 I3- 
 14. 
 
 IS- 
 16. 
 
 17- 
 1 8. 
 
 19- 
 20. 
 
 21. 
 22. 
 
 23 
 24. 
 
 25 
 
 27. 
 
 z8. 
 29. 
 
 30' 
 
 3i' 
 
 3z. 
 
 42, 
 
 1, Sheridan's Plays. 
 
 2, Playt from MolUre. By 
 
 English Dramatists. 
 
 3, Marlowfs Faustus and 
 
 Goethe's Fausi, 
 Chronicle of the Cid, 
 Rabelais' Gargantua and the 
 Heroic Deeds of Pantaeniel. 
 Machiavelli's Prince. 
 Bacon's Essays. 
 Defois Journal oj the 
 Pla^tte Year. 
 Locke on Civil Government 
 
 and Filmei's " Patnarcha."* 
 Butler's Analogy of Religion. 
 Dryden's Virgil. 
 Scolds Demonohgy and 
 
 Witchcraft. 
 Herrick's Hesperides. 
 Coleridge's 1 able-Talk. 
 Boccaccio's Decameron. 
 Stemis Tristram Shandy. 
 Chapman's Hornet's Iliad. 
 Medieeval Tales. 
 Voltaire's Candide, and 
 yohtuon's Rasselas. 
 yonson's Plays and Poems. 
 Hobbes's Leviathan. 
 Samuel Butler's Hudibras. . 
 Ideal Commonwealths. 
 Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. 
 & 26. Don Quixote. 
 Burlesque Plays and Poems. 
 Dante's Divine Comedy. 
 
 Longfellow's Translation, 
 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake- 
 field, Plays, and Poems. 
 , Fables and Proverbs from 
 the Sanskrit. [Hitofiadesa.) 
 , Lamb's Essays of Elia. 
 . The History of Thomas 
 Elltvood, 
 33 Emerson's Essays, &^c, 
 34. Sotithey's Life of Nelson, 
 
 "Marvels of clear type and general neatness."' 
 
 35. De Quincey's Confessions 
 of an Opium^Eater, A'C. 
 
 36. Stories of Ireland. By Miss 
 Edseworth, 
 
 37. Frere's Aristophanes: 
 Acharnians, Knights, Birdt, 
 
 38. Burkes Speeches and Letters, 
 
 39. Thomas h Kempis. 
 
 40. Popular Songs of Ireland. 
 
 41. Potter's jEschyltes. 
 Goeth^s Faust: Part II. 
 
 Ansteb's Translation. 
 Famous Pamphlets. 
 Francklin's Sophocles. 
 
 M. G. Lemis's Tales of 
 
 Terror and Wonder. 
 Vestiges of the Natural 
 History of Creation. 
 47. Drayton's Barons' Wars, 
 
 '■4i>.tWett's Advice] to Young 
 
 49- 
 50. 
 
 5i- 
 
 52 
 53. 
 
 The Banquet 0/ Dante. 
 
 Walker's Ori^nal. 
 Schiller's Poems and 
 
 Ballads- 
 Peele's Plays and Poems. 
 Harrington's Oceana. 
 
 54. Euripides : Alcestis and 
 
 other Plays, 
 Praed's Essays, 
 Traditional Tales. 
 
 Allan Cunningham. 
 Hooker's Ecclesiastical 
 
 Polity. Books I. -IV. 
 Euripides : The Bacchanals 
 
 and other Plays. 
 Izaak Walton's Lives. 
 Aristotle's Politics. 
 
 61. Euripides: Hecuba and 
 other Plays. 
 
 62. Rabelais — Sequel to Panta- 
 ^uel. 
 
 63. A Miscellany. 
 
 -Daily Telegraph. 
 
 57- 
 S8. 
 
 59- 
 60. 
 
INTRODUCTIOl^. 
 
 Thomas Hobbes, who lived into his ninety-second year, was born 
 in April, 1588, the year of the Spanish Armada, and died on the 
 4th of December, 1679, within ten years of the English Revolution. 
 The whole series of events that raised the question of the limit of 
 authority within a State, and made it the foremost question of his 
 day in England, lay within the limits of his actual life, after he-Jvad^-H, 
 passed the age of seventeen. He studied philosophically the Civil 
 Wars of the reign of Charles I., and expressed calmly in his books 
 what seemed to him to be the argument for a royal authority 
 entirely free from popular control. He summed up his argument 
 in the " Leviathan," which was first published in 1651, when the 
 experiment of a Commonwe:' ' A-as being tried; and he returned 
 to the battle with his "Behemoth" after failure of the Common- 
 wealth and Restoration of the Stuarts, If he could have main- 
 tained his vigorous life but for another nine years, and become a 
 centenarian, he would have seen the problem practically solved in 
 a way not dreamt of in his philosophy. 
 
 Hobbes published his " Leviathan " at that age of sixty-three, 
 mystically composed of seven tire ^f nine, which was said to form 
 in a man's life the grand climacteric. He pubUshed it for instruction 
 of the people at large in the philosophic rudiments of government, 
 which, as he reasoned them, established as the best safeguard of 
 national prosperity the absolute rule of a King. The political 
 philosopher who followed him, and laid down principles of govern- 
 ment that served as interpretation of the spirit of the English 
 Revolution, was John Locke, whose " Two Treatises on Civil 
 Government," are in another volume of this Library. 
 
 Thomas Hobbes, son of a clergyman at Malmesbury, was from 
 his earliest years an energetic student. He fastened so vigorously 
 upon Greek and Latin, that as a school-boy he translated the 
 whole " Medea " of Euripides into Latin verse. 
 
 In the year of the death of Queen Elizabeth, Hobbes, aged 
 
 fteen, went to Oxford and entered to Magdalene Hall. After five 
 
 ears of study there, he became, at the age of twenty, tutor to 
 
 vVilHam Lord Cavendish, whose father, Lord Hardwicke was 
 
S INTRODUCTION. 
 
 created Earl of Devonshire. This appointment may be said to 
 have fixed his worldly fortunes. His association with the family 
 remained unbroken ; he was tutor and household friend to three 
 generations of the ^"arls of Devonshire, and many memorials of him 
 are still to be found at Chatsworth. 
 
 With the young Lord Cavendish, Hobbes travelled to France and 
 Italy in 1610. At home. Bacon and Ben Jonson were among hjs 
 friends. In the first year of the reign of Charles I. Hobbes's first 
 patron died, and the son, whom he had trained, died two years 
 afterwards, in 1628. It was in 1628, before his pupil's death, that 
 Hobbes, at the age of forty, published his first book, a Translation 
 of Thucydides ; in the revision of which he had help from Ben 
 Jonson. It was dedicated to .'■:ir William Cavendish as Baron of 
 Hardwicke and Earl of Devonshire. Hobbes's bias towards an 
 ,.--ai(s<rfute monarchy suggested to him this translation.because he 
 thought that inasmuch as it is the principal and proper work of 
 History to instruct and enable men, by the knowledge of actions 
 past, to bear themselves prudently in the present and providently 
 towards the future, this particular History of Thucydides was 
 useful, because the Historian showed the evils of democracy, and 
 indicated preference of the Government of Athens, " both when 
 Peisistratus reigned (saving that it was an usurped power), and 
 when in the beginning of the war it was democratical in name, but 
 in effect monarchical under Pericles. So that it seemeth, that as 
 he was of regal descent, so he best approved of the regal govern- 
 ment." We note habitually in true literature the harmonious 
 relation of all parts of a man's work to what may be called the 
 motive of his public life, and the fit relation of that also to some 
 chief feature in the life of his own time. 
 
 The death of William Cavendish, not long after his attainment 
 of the Earldom, left Hobbes free for a short time, and he went to 
 France as tutor to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, but he was 
 recalled to Chatsworth by the Dowager Countess to take charge of 
 the son who vv'as now Earl of Devonshire, and he was but a boy of 
 thirteen. With him Hobbes went again to Italy and France, made 
 the acquaintance of Gassendi and Descartes, and fastened with 
 fresh ardour on philosophy and mathematics. 
 
 Hobbes endeavoured to base all that he could, and more than 
 he could, upon mathematical principles. PhilosfiliHy^is concerned, 
 he said, with thajgrfect knowJedge_of truth in all matters whatso- 
 ever. "Now, look Eow many sorts of thingsThefe'^are "which 
 properly fall within the cognizance of human reason, into so many 
 branches does the tree of philosophy divide itself. .... For 
 treating of figures, it is called geometry; of motion, physicj of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 natural right, morals ; put all together, and they make up 
 
 philosophy And truly the geometricians have very admu- 
 
 ably performed their part. For whatsoever assistance doth accrue 
 to the Ufe of man, whether from the observation of the heavens or 
 from the description of the earth ; from the notation of times, or 
 from the remotest experiments of navigation ; finally, whatsoever 
 things they are in which this present age doth differ from the rude 
 simpleness of antiquity, we must acknowledge to be a debt, which 
 we owe merely to geometry. If the moral philosophers had as 
 happily discharged their duty, I know not what could have been 
 added by human industry to the completion of that happiness 
 which is consistent with human life. For were the nature of human 
 actions as distinctly known as the nature of quantity in geometrical 
 figures, the strength of avarice and ambition, which is sustained by 
 the erroneous opinions of the vulgar as touching the nature of rig^^' 
 and wrong, would presently faint and languish ; and mankind 
 should enjoy such an immortal peace, that unless it were for habi- 
 tation, on supposition that the earth should grow too narrow for her 
 inhabitants, there would hardly be left any pretence for war." But 
 sword and pen were still restlessly busy ; and Hobbes, speculating 
 on the controversies of his time, snn g ^l^ Mn bring- within th{; t^g unds 
 nf PYay;[- crjpprgj-lip prnhlpm nf maTi jn^gj^-ipty 
 
 In 1642 Hobbes began the publication of his Philosophical 
 Rudiments concerning Government and Society, with a Latin 
 Treatise on the Citizen, of which only a few copies were then 
 printed for friends. There was no full publication of it until the 
 second edition appeared in 164.7. In 1647 Hobbes was appointed 
 mathematical tutor to the Prince, afterwards Charles II. In 1650 
 he published treatises on Human Nature and on the Body Politic. 
 In 165 1 he summed up his teaching in the " Leviathan," which he 
 caused to be written on vellum for presentation to Prince Charles. 
 
 Those parts of " Leviathan " that touched religion provoked the 
 bitterest controversy ; and to one opponent. Dr. Bramhall, Bishop 
 of Derry, Hobbes wrote an answer, in 1652, which he published in 
 1654, " Of Liberty and Necessity, wherein all Controversy concern- 
 ing Predestination, Election, Free Will, Grace, Merits, Reprobation, 
 &c., is fuUy decided and cleared." It would have been a fortunate 
 book if it had fulfilled the promise of its title. Prince Charles 
 himself was turned against Hobbes by the objection that his argu- 
 ment excluded divine right in kings. 
 
 In 1653 Hobbes left France, returned to England, and lived in 
 peace under Cromwell At the Restoration he received a pension 
 from Charles II. He still lived happily at Chatsworlh, remain- 
 ing unmarried. In the morning he would visit his patrons and their 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 guests, then retire to his own room ; at one o'clock dine alone, and 
 after dinner blow clouds Of tobacco over his papers as he worked 
 out his philosophy. He made more use of his brains than of his 
 bookshelves, thought for himself, and said that if he read as 
 much as other meii he should have been as ignorant as they. He 
 was at his best when working with his pipe for sole companion. 
 He did not bear contradiction very patiently ; and in 1655, when he 
 entered into a mathematical controversy with John Wallis, the 
 Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, and the precursor of 
 Newton, he found more than his match, not only in geometry, but 
 also in controversial skill. In 1668 Hobbes published his collected 
 works at Amsterdam. In 1675 he published a translation of the 
 Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. His " Behemoth : The 
 History of the Civil Wars of England, and of the Councils and 
 
 ""Sartifices by which they were carried on, from the year 1640 to the 
 year 1660," was published in 1679, the year of his death. 
 
 Of his writing upon what constitutes a State, Hobbes said: "I 
 was studying Philosophy for my mind sake, and I had gathered 
 together its first elements in all kinds ; and having digested them 
 into three sections by degrees, I thought to have written them, so 
 as in the first I would have treated of Body and its general pro- 
 perties ; in the second, of Man and his special faculties and 
 affections ; in the third, of cTvil "Gover nment and the duties of 
 subjects. Wherefore the first section would have contained the 
 First Philosophy, and certain elements of Physic ; in it we would 
 have considered the reasons of Time, Place, Cause, Power, Relation 
 Proportion, Quantity, Figure and Motion.^ In the second we would 
 have been conversant about Imagina'tion, Memory, Intellect 
 Ratiocination, Appetite, Will, Good and Evil, Honest "and Dis- 
 honest Whilst I contrive, order, pensively and slowly com- 
 pose these matters (for I do only reason, I dispute not); it so 
 happens in the interim, that my country, some few years before the 
 Civil Wars did rage, was boiling hot with questions concerning the 
 rights of dominion, and the obedience due from subjects, the true 
 forerunners of an approaching war ; and was the cause which, all 
 those other matters deferred, ripened and plucked from me this 
 third part. Therefore it happens that what was last in order, is 
 yet come forth first in time. And the rather because I saw that 
 
 ' grounded on its own principles sufficiently known by experience it 
 would not stand in need of the former sections. Yet I have not 
 made it out of a desire of praise : although if I had, I might have 
 defended myself with this fair excuse, that very few do things 
 laudably, who are not affected with commendation." 
 
 January, 1885. ^" 
 
TO MY MOST HONOURED FRIEND 
 MR. -FRANCIS GODOLPHIN, 
 
 OF GODOLPHIN. 
 
 Honoured Sir, 
 
 iOVR most worthy brother, Mr. Sidney Godolphin, when he 
 lived, was pleased to think my studies something, and otherwise to 
 obUge me, as you know, with real testimonies of his good opinion, ' 
 great in themselves, and the greater for the worthiness of his person. 
 For there is not any virtue that disposeth a man, either to the 
 service of God or to the service of his country, to civil society or 
 private friend^ip, that did not manifestly appear in his conversa- 
 tion, not as acquired by necessity, or affected upon occasion, but 
 inherent, and shining in a generous constitution of his nature. 
 Therefore, in honour and gratitude to him, and with devotion to 
 yourself, I humbly dedicate unto you this my Discourse of Common- 
 wealth. I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may 
 reflect on those that shall seem to favour it. For in a way beset 
 with those that contend, on one side for too great liberty, and on 
 the other side for too much authority, 'tis hard to pass between the 
 points of both unwounded. But yet, methinks, the endeavour to 
 advance the civil power, should not be by the civil power con- 
 demned ; nor private men, by reprehending it, declare they think 
 that power too great. Besides, I speak not of the men, but, in the 
 abstract, of the seat of power (like to those simple and unpartial 
 creatures in the Roman Capitol, that with their noise defended 
 those within it, not because they were they, but there), offending 
 none, I think, but those without, or such within, if there be any 
 such, as favour them. That which perhaps may most offend, are 
 certain texts of Holy Scripture, alleged by me to other purpose 
 than ordinarily they use to be by others. But I have done it with 
 due submission, and also, in order to my subject, necessarily ; for 
 they are the outworks of the enemy, from whence they impugn the 
 civil power. If, notwithstanding this, you find my labour generally 
 decried, you may be pleased to excuse yourself, and say, I am a 
 man that love my own opinions, and think all true I say, that I 
 honoured your brother, and honour you, and have presumed on 
 that, to assume the title, without your knowledge, of being, as I am, 
 
 Sir, 
 Your most humble, 
 
 and most obedient Servant, 
 
 Thomas Hobbes. 
 Paris, April JJi l6S'- 
 
THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Nature, the art whereby God hath made and governs the world, 
 is by the "art" of man, as in many other things, so in this also 
 imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For seeing life is 
 but a motion of Umbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal 
 part within; why may we not say, that all "automata" (engines 
 that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have 
 an artificial life ? For what is the " heart," but a " spring ; " and 
 the " nerves," but so many " strings ; " and the "joints," but so 
 many "wheels," giving motion to the whole body, such as was in- 
 tended by the artificer ? " Art " goes yet further, imitating that 
 rational and most excellent work of nature, " man." For by art is 
 created that great " Leviathan " called a " Commonwealth," or 
 "State," in Latin Civitas, which is hiit an artit^^iq| ^ man ; 
 though of greater stature and strength than theTiSfural, for whose 
 protection and defence it was intended ; and in which the " sove- 
 reignty " is an artificial " soul," as giving life and motion to the 
 whole body ; the " magistrates," and other " officers " of judica- 
 ture and execution, artificial "joints;" "reward" and "punish- 
 ment," by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty every joint 
 and member is moved to perform his duty, are the " nerves," that 
 do the same in the body natural ; the " wealth " and " riches " of 
 all the particular members, are the "strength ;" salus populi, the 
 ■' people's safety," its " business ; " " counsellors," by whom all 
 things needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the 
 "memory;" "equity," and "laws," an artificial "reason" and 
 " will ; " " concord," " health ; '' " sedition," " sickness ; " and " civil 
 war," " death." Lastly, the 'i|)acts " and " covenants," by which 
 the parts of this body politic were at first made, set together, and 
 united, resemble that "fiat," or the " let us make man," pronounced 
 by God in the creation. 
 
 To describe the nature of this artificial man, I will consider^ 
 
 First, the " matter " thereof, and the " artificer j " both which is 
 "man." 
 
 Secondly, "how," and by what "covenants" it is made; what 
 are the "rights" and just "power" or "authority" of a "sove- 
 reign ; " and what it is that " preserveth " or " dissolveth" it. 
 
 Thirdly, what is a " Christian commonwealth." 
 
 Lastly, what is the " kingdom of darkness." 
 
12 THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Concerning the first, there is a saying much usurped of late, that 
 '' wisdom " is acquired, not by reading of " books," but of " men." 
 Consequently whereunto, those persons, that for the most part can 
 give no other proof of being wise, take great delight to show what 
 they think they have read in men, by uncharitable censures of one 
 another behind their backs. But there is another saying not of 
 late understood, by which they might learn truly to read one 
 another, if they would take the pains ; that is, nosce teipsum, " read 
 thyself : " which was not meant, as it is now used, to countenance, 
 either the barbarous state of men in power, towards their inferiors ; 
 or to encourage men of low degree, to a saucy behaviour towards 
 their betters ; but to teach us, that for the similitude of the thoughts 
 and passions of one man, to the thoughts and passions of another, 
 whosoever looketh into himself, and considereth what he doth, when 
 he does " think," " opine," " reason," " hope," " fear," &c., and upon 
 what grounds ; he shall thereby read and know what are the 
 thoughts and passions of all other men upon the like occasions. I 
 say the similitude of " passions," which are the same in all men, 
 "desire," "fear," "hope," &c. ; not the similitude of the " objects" 
 of the passions, which are the things " desired," "feared," " hoped," 
 &c. : for these the constitution individual, and particular education, 
 do so vary, and they are so easy to be kept from our knowledge, 
 that the characters of man's heart, blotted and confounded as they 
 are with dissembling, lying, counterfeiting, and erroneous doctrines, 
 are legible only to Him that searcheth hearts. And though by 
 men's actions we do discover their design sometimes ; yet to do it 
 without comparing them with our own, and distinguishing all cir- 
 cumstances, by which the case may come to be altered, is to 
 decipher without a key, and be for the most part deceived, by too 
 much trust, or by too much diffidence ; as he that reads, is himself 
 a good or evil man. 
 
 But let one man read another by his actions never so perfectly, it 
 serves him only with his acquaintance, which are but few. He 
 that is to govern a whole nation, must read in himself, not this or 
 that particular man ; but mankind : which though it be hard to do, 
 harder than to learn any language or science ; yet when I shall 
 have set down my own reading orderly) and perspicuously, the 
 pains left another, will be only to consider, if he also find not the 
 same in himself. For this kind of doctrine admitteth no other 
 demonstration. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I.~OF MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER , PA-JS 
 
 Introduction i£, 
 
 ^ I. Of Sense 15- 
 
 II. Of Ima^nation 16- 
 
 'III. Of the Consequence or Triiin of Imaginations . . 19- 
 
 -^IV. Of Speech 22- - 
 
 JL Of Reason and Science 27- 
 
 V Vi. Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions, com- 
 monly called the Passions ; and the Speeches by 
 
 jsrhich they are expressed 31— 
 
 vn. Of the Ends or Resolutions of Discourse . . .37— 
 VIII. Of the Virtues, commonly called Intellectual ; and their 
 
 contrary Defects 38 
 
 IX. Of the Several Subjects of Knowledge ... 45 
 
 " X. Of Power, Wonh, Dignity, Honour, and Worthiness . 45 
 
 1 ^ • HI. Of the Difference of Manners 52— 
 
 ~Xn. Of Religion 56 
 
 "aIII. Of the Natur.al Condition of Mankind as concerning 
 
 y^ Felicity and Misery 63 .» 
 
 'i^i^iU Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of Contract 65—. 
 
 ' Xy. Of other Laws of Nature 7i'«- 
 
 ■■ AVI. Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated . , 79 
 
 PART II.- OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 ' XVII. t)f the. Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Common- 
 wealth 82-. 
 
 ' XVIII.' Of the Rights of Sovereigns by Institution . . 84,. 
 •« A 1a.. Of the several kinds of Commonwealth by Institution ; 
 
 — and of Succession to the Sovereign Power . . 89 •• 
 XX. Of Dominion Paternal, and Despotical . . .9^ 
 
 ^^XL Of the Liberty of Subjects 100— 
 
 ^ AAll. Of Systems Subject, Political, and Private . . . 106 
 
 XXIII. Of the Public Ministers of .Sovereign Power . . .112 
 
 XXIV. Of the Nutrition, and Procreation of a Commonwealth . 115 
 XXV. Of Counsel ' . . .119 
 
 XXVI._ Of Civil Laws 123 
 
 X5v.vii. Of Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations .... 134 
 
 XXVIII. Of Punishments, and Rewards 142 
 
 XXIX, Of those things that weaken, or tend to the Dissolution of 
 
 a Commonwealth I47»- 
 
 XXX. Of the Office of the Sovereign Representative . . 153 
 
 XXXI. Qf the Kingdom of God by Nature . , , , I'fia'- 
 
H CONTENTS. 
 
 PART III.— OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH;, 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXXII. Of the Principles of Christian Politics . . . .169 
 I XXXIII. Of the Number, Antiquity, Scope, Authority, and Inter- 
 preters of the Books of Holy Scripture . . 1 72 
 XXXIV. Of the Signification of Spirit, Angel, and Inspiration, in 
 
 the Boolcs of Holy Scripture . . . .178 
 
 XXXV. Of the Signification in Scripture of the Kingdom of God, 
 
 of Holy, Sacred, and Sacrament .... 185 
 
 XXXVI. Of the Word of God, and of Prophets ... 189 
 
 XXXVII. Of Miracles and their Use . - . . . »98 
 XXXVIII. Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, 
 
 Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption . 202 
 
 XXXIX. Of the Signification in Scripture of the word Church . 211 
 XL. Of the Rights of the Kingdom of God, in Abraham, 
 
 Moses, the High Priests, and the Kings of Judah . 212 
 
 XLI. Of the Office of our Blessed Saviour .... 218 
 
 XLII. Of Power Ecclesiastical 222 
 
 .XLIII. Of what is Necessary for a Man's Reception into the 
 
 ,,^ Kingdom of Heaven ,.,.., 261^3 
 
 PART IV.-OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 XLIV. Of Spiritual Darkness, from Misinterpretation of 
 
 Scripture . , sjt 
 
 XLV. Of Demonology, and other Relics of the Religion of the 
 
 Gentiles 287 
 
 XLVI. Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy, and Fabulpus Tra- 
 ditions ' , , 298 
 
 XLVII. Of the Benefit proceeding from such Darkness ; and to 
 
 whom it accraeth , , , . 4 . , 309 
 
 A Review, and Conclusion . . . {' ', \ sic^ 
 
Leviathan, 
 
 OR THE MATTER, FORM, AND POWER OF A 
 
 COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIL. 
 
 PART I.— OF MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Of Sense. 
 
 Concerning the thought s of man^^ I will consider them first singly, and 
 afterwards in train, or depsndSRce upon one another. Singly, they are 
 every one a " representation " or "appearance " of some quality, or other 
 accident of a body without us, which is commonly called an " object." 
 Which object worketh on the eyes, ears, and other parts of a man's body ; 
 and by diversity of working, produceth diversity of appearances. 
 
 The original of them all, is that which we call "sense," for there is no 
 conception in a man's mind, which hath not at first, totally or by parts, been 
 begotten upon the organs of sense. The rest are derived from that original.. 
 
 To know the natural cause of sense, is not very necessary to the business 
 now in hand ; and I have elsewhere written of the same at large. Never- 
 theless, to fill each part of my present method, I will briefly deliver the 
 same in this place. 
 
 The cause of sense, is the external body, or object, which presseth ihe 
 organ proper to each sense, either immediately, as in the taste and touch ; 
 or mediately, as in seeing, hearing, and smelling ; which pressure, by the 
 mediation of Jhejierves, and other strings and membranes of the body, con. 
 tinued inwards to the brain and heart, causeth there a resistance, or counter, 
 pressure, or endeavour of the heart to deliver itself, which endeavour, 
 because "outward," seemeth to be some matter without. And this 
 " seeming," or " fancy," is that which men call " sense ; " and consisteth, 
 as to the eye, in a "light," or "colour figured ;" to the ear, in a "sound ;" 
 to the nostril, in an "odour ; " to the tongue and palate, in a " savour ; " 
 and to the rest of the body, in "heat," "cold," "hardness," "softness," 
 and such other qualities as we discern by " feeling." All which qualities 
 called "sensible," are in the object, that causeth them, but so man 
 several motions of the matter, by which it presseth our. organs diversely 
 
i6 0I< MAN. 
 
 Neither in us that are pressed, are they anything else, but divers motions ; 
 for motion produceth nothing but motion. But their appearance to us 
 is fancy, the same waking, that dreaming. And as pressing, r"°'""g' 
 or striking the eye, makes us fancy a light ; and pressing the ear, produceth 
 a din ; so do the bodies also we see, or hear, produce the same by their 
 strong, though unobserved action. For if those colours and sounds were m 
 the bodies, or objects that cause them, they could not be severed from them, 
 as by glasses, and in echoes by reflection, we see they are ; where we know 
 the thing we see is in one place, the appearance in another. And though at 
 some certain distance the real and very object seem invested with the 
 fancy it begets in us ; yet still the object is one thing, the image or fancy is 
 __aiiDtber^So that sense, in all cases, is nothing else but original fancy, is 
 caused, as I have said, by the pressure, th.at is, by the motion, of external 
 things upon our eyes, ears, and other organs thereunto ordained. 
 
 Kut the philosophy schools, through all the universities of Christendom, 
 grounded upon certain texts of Aristotle, teach another doctrine, and say, 
 for the cause of "vision," that the thing seen, sendeth forth on every side a 
 "visible species," inEnglSh, a "visible show," " apparition," or "aspect," 
 or "a being seen ; " the receiving whereof into the eye, is " seeing." And 
 for the cause of " hearing," that the thing heard, sendeth forth an "audible 
 species," that is, an "audible aspect," or "audible being seen," which 
 entering at the ear, maketh "hearing." Nay, for the cause of "under- 
 standing " also, they say the thing understood, sendeth forth an " intel- 
 ligible species," that is, an "intelligible being seen," which, coming into 
 the understanding, makes us understand. I say not this, as disproving the 
 use of universities ; but because I am to speak hereafter of their office in a 
 commonwealth, I must let you see on all occasions by the way, what things 
 would be amended in them ; amongst which the frequency of insignificant 
 .speech is one. 
 
 QH AFTER 11. 
 
 0/ Imagination, 
 
 That when a thing lies still, unless somewhat else stir it, it will lie still for 
 ever, is a truth that no man doubts of But that when a thing is in motion, 
 it will eternally be in motion, unless somewhat else stay it, though the 
 reason be the same, namely, that nothing can change itself, is not so easily 
 assented to. For men measure, riot only other men, but all other things, 
 by themselves ; and because they find themselves subject after motion to 
 pain, and lassitude, think everything else grows weary of motion, and seeks 
 repose of its own accord ; little considering, whether it be not some other 
 motion, wherein that desire of rest they find in themselves, consisteth. From 
 hence it is, that the schools say, heavy bodies fall downwards, out of an 
 appetite to rest, and to conserve their nature in that place which is most 
 proper for them ; ascribing appetite, and knowledge of what is good for their 
 conservation, which is more than man has, to things inanimate, absurdly. 
 
 When a body is once in motion, it moveth, unless something else hinder 
 it, eternally ; and whatsoever hindreth it, cannot in an instant, but in time, 
 and by degrees, quite extinguish it ; and, as we see in the water, though the 
 wind cease, the waves give not over rolling for a long time after : so also it 
 happeneth in that motion, which is made in the internal parts of a man, 
 then, when he sees, dreams, &c. For after the object is removed, or the 
 eye shut, we still retain an image of the thing seen, though more obscure 
 
OF IMA GIN A TIONS. 1 7 
 
 ihan when we see it. And this is it, the latins call " imaginatioli," from 
 Ihe image made in seeing; and apply the same, though improperly, to all the 
 other senses. But the Greeks call it " fancy;" which signifies "appearance," 
 and is as proper to one sense, as to another. "Imagination," therefore, 
 is nothing but " decaying sense ; " and is found in men, and many other living 
 creatures, as well sleeping, as waking. 
 
 The decay of sense in men waking, is not the decay of the motion made 
 in sense ; but an obscuring of it, in such manner as the light of the sun 
 obscureth the light of the stars ; which stars do no less exercise their virtue, 
 by which they are visible, in the day than in the night. But because 
 amongst many strokes, which our eyes, ears, and other organs receive from 
 external bodies, the predominant only is sensible ; therefore, the light of the 
 sun being predominant, we are not affected with the action of the stars. 
 And any object being removed from our eyes, though the impression it made 
 in us remain, yet other objects more present succeeding, and working on us, 
 the imagination of the past is obscured and made weak, as the voice of a man 
 is in the noise of the day. From whence it foUoweth, that the longer the! 
 time is, after the sight or sense of any object, the weaker is the imagina-l 
 tion. For the continual change of man's body destroys in time the parts 
 which in sense were moved : so that distance of time, and of place, hath one 
 and the same effect in us. For as at a great distance of place, that which 
 we look at appears dim, and without distinction of the smaller parts ; and 
 as voices grow weak and inarticulate ; so also, after great distance of time, 
 our imagination of the past is weak ; and we lose, for example, of cities w&£; 
 have seen, many particular streets, and of actions, many particular 
 circumstances. This "decaying sense, " when we would express the thing 
 itself, I mean " fancy " itself, we call " imagination," as I said before : but 
 when we would express the decay, and signify that the sense is fading, old,_ 
 and past, it is called "memory." So that imagination and memory are but 
 one thing, which for divers considerations hath divers names. ^ 
 
 Much memory, or memory of many things, is called "experienced^ 
 Again, imagination being only of those things which have been formerly 
 perceived by sense, either all at once, or by parts at several times ; the 
 former, which is the imagining the whole object as it was presented to the 
 sense, is "simple" imagination, as when one imagineth a man, or horse, 
 which he hath seen before. The oflier is " compounded ; " as when, from 
 the sight of a man at one time, and of a horse at another, we conceive in our 
 mind a Centaur. So when a man compoundeth the image of his own 
 person with the image of the actions of another man, as when a man 
 imagines himself a Hercules or an Alexander, which happeneth often to 
 them that are much taken with reading of romances, it is a compound 
 imagination, and properly but a fiction of the mind. There be also other 
 imaginations that rise in men, though waking, from the great impression 
 made in sense : as from gazing upon the sun, the impression leaves an 
 image of the sun before our eyes a long time after ; and from being long and 
 vehemently attent upon geometrical figures, a man shall in the dark, though 
 awake, have the images of lines ai)d angles before his eyes ; which kind of 
 fancy hath no particular name, as being a thing that doth not commonly fall 
 into men's discourse. • / 
 
 The imaginations of them that sleep are those we call " dreams." And »y!L 
 these also, as also all other imaginations, have been before, either totally 
 or by parcels, in the sense. And because in sense, the brain and nerves, v 
 which are the necessary organs of sense, are so benumbed in sleep as not ' 
 easily to be moved by the action of external objects, there can happen in 
 sleep no imagination, and therefore no dream, but what proceeds from the 
 agitation of the inward parts of man's body ; which inward parts, for th? 
 
1 8 OF MAN. 
 
 connection they have with the brain, and other organs, when they be dis- 
 tempered, do keep the same in motion ; whereby the imaginations there 
 formerly made, appear as if a man were waking ; saving that the organs of 
 sense being now benumbed, so as there is no new object, which can master 
 and obscure them with a more vigorous impression, a dream must needs be 
 more clear, in this silence of sense, than our waking thoughts. And hence 
 it Cometh to pass, that it is a hard matter, and by many thought impossible, 
 to distinguish exactly between sense and dreaming. For my part, when I 
 consider that in dreams I do not often nor constantly think of the same per- 
 sons, places, objects, and actions, that I do waking ; nor remember so long 
 a train of coherent thoughts, dreaming, as at other limes ; and because 
 waking I often observe the absurdity of dreams, but never dream of the 
 absurdites of my waking thoughts ; I am well satisfied, that, being awake, I 
 know I dream not, though when I dream I think myself awake. ' - 
 
 And seeing dreams are caused by the distemper of some of the inward 
 parts of the body, divers distempers must needs cause different dreams. 
 And hence it is that lying cold breedeth dreams of fear, and raiseth the 
 thought and image of some fearful object, the motion from the brain to the 
 inner parts and from the inner parts to the brain being reciprocal ; and that 
 as aneer causeth heat in some parts of the body when we are awake, so 
 when we sleep the overheating of the same parts causelh anger, and 
 raiseth up in the brain the imagination of an enemy. In the same manner, 
 as natural kindness, when we are awake, causeth desire, and desire makes 
 heat in certain other parts of the body ; so also too much heat in those parts, 
 while we sleep, raiseth in the brain an imagination of some kindness shown. 
 In sum, our dreams are the reverse of our waking imaginations ; the 
 motion when we are awake beginnijig at one end, and when we dream at 
 another. 
 
 The most difficult discerning of a man's dream, from his waking tlioughts, 
 is then, when by some accident we observe not that we have slept : which 
 is easy to happen to a man full of fearful thoughts, and whose conscience is 
 much troubled ; and that sleepeth, without the circumstances of going to 
 bed or putting off his clothes, as one that noddeth in a chair. For he that 
 taketh pains, and industriously lays himself to sleep, in case any uncouth 
 and exorbitant fancy come unto liim,-cannot easily think it other than a 
 dream. We read of Marcus Brutus (one that had his life given him by 
 Julius Cseaar, and was also his favourite, and notwithstanding murdered 
 him), how at Philippi, the night before he gave battle to Augustus CiEsar, 
 he saw a fearful apparition, which is commonly related by historians as a 
 vision ; but considering the circumstances, one may easily judge lo have 
 been but a short dream. For silting in his tent, ptoisive and troubled with 
 the horror of his rash act, it was not hard for him, slumbering in the 
 cold, to dream of that which most affrighted him ; which fear, as by degiees 
 It made him wake, so also it must needs make the apparition by degrees to 
 vanish ; and having no assurance that he slept, he could have no cause to 
 thmk It a dream, or anything but a vision. And this is no very rare acci- 
 dent ; for even they that be perfectly awake, if they be timorous and 
 superstitious, possessed with fearful tales, and alone in the dark, are subject 
 to the like fancies, and believe they see sph-ils and dead men's ghosts walk- 
 ing m churchyards ; whereas it is either their fancy only, or else the knavery 
 of such persons as make use of such superstitious fear, to pass disguised in 
 the night, to places they would not be known lo haunt. 
 
 From this ignorance of how to distinguish dreams, and other strong 
 ancies, from vision and sense, did arise the greatest part of the ieli<xion of 
 he GentJes in lime past, that worshipped satyrs, fawns, nymphs, aSd the 
 like ; and now-a-days the opinion that rude people have of fairies, ghosts, 
 
TRAIN OF IMAGINATIONS^ 19 
 
 and goblinSi attd of the power of witches. For as for witcHSSJ I think not 
 that their witchcraft is any real power ; but yet that they are justly punished, 
 for tlie false belief they have that they can do such mischief, joined with 
 their purpose to do it if they can ; their trade being nearer to a new religion 
 than to a craft or science. And for fairies, and walking ghosts, the opinion 
 of them has, I think, been on purpose either taught or not confuted, to 
 keep in credit the use of exorcism, of crosses, of holy water, and other 
 such inventions of ghostly men. Nevertheless, there is no doubt but God 
 can make unnatural apparitions ; but that He does it so often, as men need 
 to fear such things, more than they fear the stay or change of the course of 
 nature, which He also can stay, and change, is no point of Christian faith. 
 But evil men, under pretext that God can do any thing, are so bold as 
 to say any thing when it serves their turn, though they think it untrue ; 
 it is the part of a wise man to believe them no farther than right 
 reason makes that which they say appear credible. If this superstitious fear ^ 
 of spirits were taken away, and with it, prognostics from dreams, false 
 prophecies, and many other things depending thereon, by which crafty 
 ambitious persons abuse the simple people, men would be much more fitted 
 than they are for civil obedience. 
 
 And this ought to be the work of the schools : but they rather nourish 
 such doctrine. For, not knowing what imagination or theV^senses are, 
 what they receive, they teach : some saying that imaginations rise of them- 
 selves, and have no cause ; others that they rise most commonly from the 
 will ; and that good thoughts are blown (inspired) into a man by God, and 
 evil thoughts by the devil ; or that good thoughts are poured (infused) into 
 a man by God, and evil ones by the devil. Some say the senses receive the 
 species of things, and deliver them to the common sense ; and the common 
 sense delivers them over to the fancy, and the fancy to the memory, and the 
 memory to the judgment, like handing of things from one to another, with 
 many words making nothing understood. 
 
 The imagination that is raised in man, or any other creature indued 
 with the faculty of imagining, by words, or other voluntary signs, is that we 
 generally call " understanding; " and is common to man and beast. For 
 a dog by custom will understand the call, or the rating of his master ; and 
 so will many other beasts. That understanding which is peculiar to man, 
 is the understanding not only his will, but his conceptions and thoughts, by 
 the sequel and contexture of the names of things into affirmations, 
 negations, and other forms of speech ; and of this kind of understanding I 
 shall speak hereafter. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Oftfte Consequence or Train of Imaginations. 
 
 By "consequence," or "train" of thoughts, I understand that succession 
 of one thought to another, which is called, to distinguish it from discourse , 
 ill words, " mental discourse." 
 
 When a man thinketh on anything whatsoever, his next thought after, is 
 not altogether so casual as it seems to be. Not every thought to every 
 thought succeeds indifferently. But as we have no imagination, whereof 
 we have not formerly had sense, in whole, or in parts ; so we have no 
 transition from one imagination to another, whereof we never had the like 
 before in our senses. The reason whereof is this. All fancies are motions | 
 within us, relics of those made in the sense : and those motions that im- 
 mediately succeeded one another in the sense, continue also togetlier after . 
 
20 OF MAN. 
 
 sense > insomuch as the former coming again to take place, and be pre- 
 dominant, the latter foUoweth, by coherence of the matter moved, in such 
 manner, as water upon a plane table is drawn which way any one part of 
 it is guided by the finger. But because in sense, to one and the same thing 
 perceived, sometimes one thing, sometimes another succeedeth, it comes to 
 pass in time, that in the imagining of anything, there is no certainty what 
 we shall imagine next ; only this is certain, it shall be something that suc- 
 ceeded the same before, at one time or another. 
 
 This train of thoughts, or mental discourse, is of two sorts. The first is 
 "unguided," "without design," and inconstant; wherein there is no 
 passionate thought, to govern and direct those that follow, to itself, as the 
 end and scope of some desire, or other passion : in which case the thouglils 
 are said to wander, and seem impertinent one to another, as in a dream. 
 Such are commonly the thoughts of men, that are not only witliout com- 
 pany, but also without care of anything ; though even then their thoughts 
 are as busy as at other times, but without harmony ; as the sound which a 
 lute out of tune would yield to any man ; or in tune, to one that could not 
 play. And yet in this wild ranging of the mind, a man may oft-times per- 
 ceive the way of it, and the dependence of one thought upon another. For 
 in a discourse of our present civil war, what could seem more impertinent, 
 than to ask, as one did, what was the value of a Roman penny ? Yet the 
 coherence to me was manifest enough. For the thought of the war, 
 introduced the thought of the delivering up the king to his enemies ; the 
 thought of that, brought in the thought of the delivering up of Christ ; and 
 that again the thought of the thirty pence, which was the price of that 
 treason ; and thence easily followed that malicious question ; and all this in 
 a moment of time ; for thought is quick. 
 
 The second is more constant ; as being " regulated " by some desire, and 
 design. For the impression made by such things as we desire, or fear, is 
 .strong, and permanent, or, if it cease for a time, of quick return : so strong 
 ^it is sometimes, as to hinder and break our sleep. From desire, ariseth the 
 thought of some means we have seen produce the like of that which we aim 
 at ; and from the thought of that, the thought of means to that mean ; and 
 so continually, till we come to some beginning within our own power. And 
 because the end, by the greatness of the impression, comes often to mind 
 in case our thoughts begin to wander, they are quickly again reduced into 
 the way : which observed by one of the seven wise men, made him give 
 men this precept, which is now worn out, Respice finem ; that is to say in 
 all your actions, look often upon what you would have, as the thine that 
 directs all )our thoughts in the way to attain it. ° 
 
 The train of regulated thoughts is of two kinds ; one, when of an effect 
 imagined we seek the causes, or means that produce it : and this is common 
 to man and beast. The other is, when imagining anything whatsoever, we 
 seek all the possible effects, that can by it be produced ; that is to sav 
 we imagine what we can do with it, when we have it. Of which I have 
 
 not at any time seen any sign, but in man only, for this is a curiosity 
 hardly incident to the nature of any living creature that has no other passTon 
 but sensual, such as are hunger, thirst, lust, and anger. In sum! the dis"' 
 course of he mind when it ,s governed by design, is nothing but "seek- 
 ing, or the faculty of invention, which the Lltins called Tag^itas ll\ 
 solertm, -^hnntms out of the causes, of some effect, present or msT-'or of 
 he effects, of some present or past cause. Sometimes a man seeks wW he 
 hathlos ; and from tliat place, and time, wherein he misses fthl mind 
 
 h"hadt' haTi^ to Lv tf;r^ '""^ !°'™^' '° '^"'^ -'^"- '-^ ""en 
 • ?■ 1 I u ■ ^l '? ^I"^ ^"""e certam, and 1 mited time and olace 
 
 m Which to begm a methgd of seeking. Again, fiw the«cerhis thoujhu 
 
TRAIN OF IMAGINATIONS. 21 
 
 run over the same places and times, to find what action, ov other occasion 
 might make him lose it. This we call " remembrance," or calling to mind : 
 the Latins call it " reminiscentia," as it were a " re-conning " of our former 
 actions. 
 
 Sometimes a man knows a place determinate, within the compass whereof 
 he is to seek ; and then his thoughts ran over all the parts thereof, in the 
 same manner as one would sweep a room, to find a jewel ; or as a spaniel 
 ranges the field, till he find a scent ; or as a man should run over the 
 alphabet, to start a rhyme. 
 
 Sometimes a man desires to know the event of an action ; and then he 
 thinketh of some like action past, and the events thereof one after another ; 
 supposing like events will follow like actions. As he that foresees what will 
 become of a criminal, reckons what he has seen follow on the like crime be- 
 fore ; having this order of thoughts, the crime, the officer, the prison, the 
 judge, and the gallows. Which kind of thoughts is called " foresight," and 
 " prudence," or " providence ; " and sometimes " wisdom ; " though such 
 conjecture, through the difficulty of observing all circumstances, be very 
 fallacious. But this is certain ; by how much one man has more experience 
 of things past, than another, by so much also he is more prudent, and his 
 expectations the seldomer fail him. The " present " only has a being in 
 nature ; things " past " have a being in the memory only, but things to 
 "come" have no being at all; the " future " being but a fiction of the 
 mind, applying the sequels of actions past, to the actions that are present ; 
 which with most certainty is done by him that has most experience, but not 
 with certainty enough. And though it be called pradence, when the event 
 answereth our expectation ; yet in its own nature, ,it is but presumption. For 
 the foresight of things to come, which is providence, belongs only to him by 
 whose will they are to come. From him only, and supernaturally, proceeds 
 prophecy. The best prophet naturally is the best guesser ; and the best 
 guesser, he that is most versed and studied in the matters he guesses at : for 
 he hath most " signs " to guess by. 
 
 A "sign" is the evident antecedent of the consequent; and contrarily, 
 the consequent of the antecedent, when the like consequences have been 
 observed before : and the oftener they have been observed, the less 
 uncertain is the sign. And therefore he that has most experience in any 
 kind of business, has most signs, whereby to guess at the future time ; and 
 consequently is the most pradent : and so much more prudent than he that 
 is new in that kind of busine.^s, as not to be equalled by any advantage of 
 natural and extemporary wit : though perhaps many young men think the 
 contrary. 
 
 Nevertheless it is not prudence that distinguisheth man from beast. There 
 be beasts, that at a year old observe more, and pursue that which is for their 
 good, more prudently, than a child can do at ten. 
 
 As prudence is a " presumption " of the " future," contracted from the 
 " experienced^ of time "past : " so there is a presumption of things past, 
 taken from other things, not future, but past also. For he that hath seen by 
 what courses and degrees a flourishing state hath first come into civil war, 
 and then to ruin ; upon the sight of the ruins of any other state, will guess, 
 the like war, and the like courses have been there also. But this conjecture 
 has the same uncertainty almost with the conjecture of the future ; both 
 being grounded only upon experience. 
 
 There is no other act of man's mind, that I can remember, naturally 
 planted in him, so-as to need no other thing, to the exercise of it, but to be 
 bom a man, and live with the use of his five senses. Those other faculties 
 of which I shall speak by and by, and which seem proper to man only, are 
 ac<}uir$d and increased by study and industry ; and of roost men learned by 
 
22 OF MAN. 
 
 instruction, and discipline; and proceed all fr°« *« /"Y«*"j°" "L^'l'l 
 and speech. For besides sense, and thoughts, and the train of thoughts, the 
 mind of man has no other motion; though by the help of speech, and 
 method, the same faculties may be improved to such a height, as to 
 distinguish men from all other living creatures. 
 
 Whatsoever we imarine is "finite." Therefore there is no idea, or .on- 
 ception of any thing we call " infinite.'^ No man can have m his mind an 
 image of infinite magnitude ; nor conceive infinite swiftness, infinite time, 
 or infinite force, or infinite power. When we say any thing is infinite, we 
 signify only that we are not able to conceive the ends, and bounds of the 
 thmgs named ; having no conception of the thing, but of our own 
 •inability. And therefore the name of God is used, not to make us conceive 
 him, for he is incomprehensible ; and his greatness, and power are uncon- 
 ceivable ; but that we may honour him. Also because, whatsoever, as I 
 said before, we conceive, has been perceived first by sense, eitlier all at once, 
 or by parts ; a man can have no thought, representing any thing, not subject 
 to sense. No man therefore can conceive any thing, but he must conceive 
 it in some place ; and indued with some determinate magnitude ; and 
 which may be divided into parts ; nor that any thing is all in this place, and 
 all in another place at the same time ; nor that two, or more things can be 
 in one, and the same place at once : for none of these things ever have, nor 
 can be incident to sense ; but are absurd speeches, taken upon credit, with- 
 out any signification at all, from deceived philosophers, and deceived, 
 or deceiving schoolmen. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Of Speech. 
 
 The invention of " printing," though ingenious, compared with the inven- 
 tion of " letters," is no great matter. But who was the first that found the 
 use of letters, is not known. He that first brought them into Greece, men 
 say was Cadmus, the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia. A profitable in- 
 vention for continuing the memory of time past, and the conjunction 
 of mankind, dispersed into so many, and distant regions of the earth ; and 
 virithal difficult, as proceeding from a watchful observation of the divers 
 motions of the tongue, palate, lips, and other organs of speech ; whereby to 
 make as many differences of characters, to remember them. But the most 
 noble and profitable invention of all other, was that of ' ' speech, " consisting 
 •of "names" or "appellations," and their connection; whereby men 
 register their thoughts ; recall them when they are past ; and also declare 
 them one to another for mutual utility and conversation ; without which, 
 there had been amongst men, neither commonwealth, nor society, nor con- 
 tract, nor peace, no more than amongst lions, bears, and wolves. The first; 
 author of "speech " was God himself, that instructed Adam how to name 
 such creatures as he presented to his sight ; for the Scripture goeth no 
 further in this matter. But this was sufficient to direct him to add more 
 names, as the experience and use of the creatures should give him occasion ; 
 and to join them in such manner by degrees, as to make himself under- 
 stood ; and so by succession of time, so much language might be gotten, as 
 he had found use for ; though not so copious, as an orator or philosopher 
 has need of : for I do not find any thing in the Scripture, out of which, 
 directly or liy consequence, can be gathered, that Adam was taught the 
 names of all figures, numbers, measures, colours, sounds, fancies, relations 
 
OF SPEECH. 23 
 
 much less ihe names of words and speech, as "general," "special," 
 "affirmative," "/legative," " interrogative," "optative," " infi.iitive," all 
 which are useful ; and least of all, of "entity," "intentionality," "quidd- 
 ity," <nnd other insignificant words of the school. 
 
 But all this language gotten, and augmented by Adam and his posterity, 
 was again lost at the Tower of Babel, when, by the hand of God, every 
 man was stricken, for his rebellion, with an oblivion of his former language. 
 And being hereby forced to disperse themselves into several parts of the 
 world, it must needs be, that the diversity of tongues that now is, proceeded 
 by degrees from them, in such manner, as need, the mother of all inventions, 
 taught them ; and in tract of time grew everywhere more copious. 
 
 The general use of speech, is to transfer our mental discourse, into 
 verbal ; or the train of our thoughts, into a train of words ; and that for 
 two commodities, whereof one is the registering of the consequences of our 
 thoughts ; which being apt to slip out of our memory, and put us to a new 
 labour, may again be recalled, by such words as they were marked by. So 
 that the first use of names is to serve for " marks," or " notes " of remem- 
 brance. Another is, when many use the same words, to signify, by their 
 connection and order, one to another, what they conceive, or think of each 
 matter ; and also what they desire, fear, or have any other passion for. 
 And for this use they are called "signs." Special uses of speech are these ; 
 first, to register, what by cogitation, we find to be the cause of any thing, 
 present or past ; and what we find things present or past may produce, or 
 effect ! which in sum, is acquiring of arts. Secondly, to show to others 
 that knowledge which we have attained, which is, to counsel and teach one 
 another. Thirdly, to make know n to others our wills and purposes, that 
 we may have the mutual help of one another. Fourthly, to please and 
 delight ourselves and others, by playing with our words, for pleasure or 
 ornament, innocently. 
 
 To these uses, there are also four correspondent abuses. First, when men 
 register their thoughts wrong, by the inconstancy of the signification of 
 their words i by which they register for their conception, that which they 
 never conceived, and so deceive themselves. Secondly, when they use 
 words metaphorically ; that is, in other sense than that they are ordained 
 for ; and thereby deceive others. Thirdly, by words, when they declare 
 that to be their will, which is not. Fourthly, when they use them to grieve 
 one another; for seeing Nature hath armed living creatures, some with 
 teeth, some with horns, and some with hands, to grieve an enemy, it is but an 
 abuse of speech, to grieve him with the tongue, unless it be one whom we are 
 obliged to govern ; and then it is not to grieve, but to correct an d amend. 
 
 The manner how speech serveth to the remembrance of the consequence 
 of causes and effects, consisteth in the imposing of "names," and the 
 " connection" of them. / 
 
 Of names, some are "proper," and singular to one only thing, aS 
 "Peter," "John," "this man," "this tree ;" and some are "common" to 
 many things, "man," "horse," "tree;" every of which, though but one 
 name, is nevertheless the name of divers particular things ; in respect of all 
 which together, it is called an "universal"; there being nothing in the 
 world universal but names ; for the things named are every one of them 
 individual and singular. 
 
 One universal name is imposed on many things, for their similitude in 
 some quality, or other accident ; and whereas a proper name bringeth -to 
 mind one thing only, universals recall any one of those many. 
 
 And of names universal, some are of more, and some of less extent; the 
 larger comprehending the less large ; and some again of equal extent, 
 comprehending each other reciprocally. As for example : the name "body" 
 
24 OF MAN. 
 
 is of larger signification than the word " man," and comprehendeth it ; and 
 the names "man" and "rational," are of equal extent, comprehending 
 mutually one another. But here we must take notice, that by a name is 
 not always understood, as in grammar, one only word ; but sometimes, by 
 circumlocution, many words together. For all these words, "he that in 
 his actions observeth the laws of his country," make but one name, equiva- 
 lent to this one word, "just." 
 
 By this imposition of names, some of larger, some of stricter signification, 
 we turn the reckoning of the consequences of things imagined in the mind, 
 into a reckoning of the consequences of appellations. For example : a man 
 that hath no use of speech at all, such as is bom and remains perfectly 
 deaf and dumb, if he set before his eyes a triangle, and by it two right 
 angles, such as are the corners of a square figure, he may, by meditation, 
 compare and find, that the three angles of that triangle, are equal -to those 
 two right angles that stand by it. But if another triangle be shown him, 
 different in shape from the former, he cannot know, without a new labour, 
 whether the three angles of that also be equal to the same. But he that 
 hath the use of words, when he observes, that such equality was consequent, 
 not to the length of the sides, nor to any other particular thing in his 
 triangle ; but only to this, that the sides were straight, and the angles three ; 
 and that that was all, for which he named it a triangle ; will boldly conclude 
 universally, that such equality of angles is in all triangles whatsoever ; and 
 register his invention in these general terms, "every triangle hath its three 
 angles equal to two right angles." And thus the consequence found in one 
 particular, comes to be registered and remembered, as a universal rule, and 
 discharges our mental reckoning, of time and place, and delivers us from all 
 labour of the mind, saving the first, and makes that which was found true 
 " here," and " now," to be true in " all times " and " places." 
 
 But the use of words in registering our thoughts is in nothing so evident 
 as in numbering. A natural fool that could never learn by heart the order 
 of numeral words, as "one," " two, " and " three, " may observe every stroke 
 of the clock, and nod to it, or say "one," "one," "one," but can never 
 know what hour it strikes. And it seems, there was a time when those names 
 of number were not in use ; and men were fain to apply their fingers of one or 
 both hands, to those things they desired to keep account of ; and that thence 
 it proceeded, that now our numeral words are but ten, in any nation, and 
 in some but five ; and then they begin again. And he that can tell ten, if 
 he recite them out of order, will lose himself, and not know when he has 
 done. Much less will he be able to add, and subtract, and perform all 
 other operations of arithmetic. So that without words there is no possibility 
 of reckoning of numbers ; much less of magnitudes.of swiftness,of force, and 
 other things, the reckonings whereof are necessary to the being, or well- 
 being of mankind. 
 
 When two names are joined together into a consequence, or affirmation, 
 as thus, " a man is a living creature ;"or thus, " if he be a man, he is a living 
 creature ; " if the latter name, " living creature," signify all that the former 
 name "man" signifieth, then the affirmation, or consequence, is "true-" 
 otherwise " false. " For " true " and " false " are attributes of speech, not 
 of thm^^s. And where speech is not, there is neither " truth " nor " false- 
 hood ;" " error " there may be, as when we expect that which shall not be, 
 or suspect what has not been ; but in neither case can a man be charged 
 . with u ntruth. ^ 
 
 Seemg then that truth consisteth in the right ordering of names in our 
 affirmations, a man that seeketh precise truth had need to remember wh.-it 
 every name he uses stands for, and to place it accordingly, or else he will 
 find himself entangled in words, as a bird in lime twigs, the inore he strug- 
 
OF SPEECH. 25 
 
 gles the more belimed. And therefore in geometry, which is the only 
 science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind, men begiii 
 at settling the significations of their words ; which settling of significations 
 they call " definitions," and place them in the beginning of their reckoning. 
 
 By this it appears how necessary it is for any man that aspiies to true 
 knowledge, to examine the definitions of former authors ; and either to cor- 
 rect them, where they are negligently set down, or to make them himstlf. 
 For the errors of definitions multiply themselves according as the reckoning 
 proceeds, and lead men into absurdities, which at last they see, but cannot 
 avoid, without reckoning anew from the beginning, in which lies the foun- 
 dation of their errors. From whence it happens, that they which trust to 
 books do as they that cast up many little sums into a greater, without 
 considering whether those little sums were rightly cast up or not ; and at 
 last finding the error visible, and not mistrusting their first grounds, know 
 not which way to clear themselves, but spend time in fluttering over their 
 books ; as birds that entering by the chimney, and finding themselves 
 enclosed in a chamber, flutter at the false light of a glass window, for want 
 of wit to consider which way they came in. So that in the right definitior» 
 of names lies the first use of speech ; which is the acquisition of science ; 
 and in wrong, or no definitions, lies the first abuse ; from which proceed all 
 false and senseless tenets ; which make those men that take their instruction 
 from the authority of books, and not from their own meditation, to be as 
 much below the condition of ignorant men, as men endued with true science 
 are above it. For between true science and erroneous doctrines, ignorance ^ 
 is in the middle. Natural sense and imagination are not subject to absurdity. 
 Nature itself cannot err ; and as men abound in copiousness of language, so 
 they become more wise, or more mad than ordinary. Nor is it possible 
 without letters for any man to become either excellently wise, or, unless his 
 memory be hurt by disease or ill constitution of organs, excellently foolish. 
 For words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them ; but they 
 are the money of fools, that value them by the authority of an Aristotle, a 
 Cicero, or a Thomas, or any. other doctor whatsoever, if but a titi ■ 
 
 " Subject to names," is whatsoever can enter into or be considered in an 
 account, and be added one to another to make a sum, or subtracted one 
 from another and leave a remainder. The Latins called accounts of money 
 rationes, and accountinjj ratiocinatio ; and that which we in bills or books 
 of account call " items," they call nomina, that is "names ; " and thence 
 it seems to proceed, that they extended the word " ratio " to the faculty of 
 reckoning in all other things. The Greeks have but one word, Xiyoy, for 
 both " speech " and " reason ; " not that they thought there was no speech 
 without reason, but no reasoning without speech : and the act of reasoning 
 they called "syllogism," which signifieth summing up of the consequences of 
 one saying to another. And because the same thing may enter into account 
 for divers accidents, their names are, to show that diversity, diversely wrested 
 and diversified. This diversity of names may be reduced to four general / 
 heads. 
 
 First, a thing may enter into account for "matter" or "body;" as 
 "living," "sensible," "rational," "hot," "cold," "moved," "quiet;" 
 with all which names the word "matter" or "body," is understood; all 
 such being names of matter. 
 
 Secondly, it may enter into account, or be considered, for some accident 
 or quality which we conceive to be in it ; as for " being moved," for " being 
 so long,' for " being hot," &c. ; and then, of the name of the thing itself, 
 by a little change or wresting, we make a name for that accident, which we 
 consider ; and for "living" put into the account "life ;" for "moved," 
 "motion;" for "hot," "heat ;" for "long," " length," and the like: and 
 
26 OF MAN. 
 
 all sucli name.; are the names of the accidents and properties by which one 
 matter and body is distinguished from another. These are called " names 
 abstract," because severed, not from matter, but from the account of 
 matter. 
 
 Thirdly, we bring into account the properties of our own bodies, whereby 
 we make such distinction ; as when anything is seen by us, we reckon not 
 the thing itself, but the sight, the colour, the idea of it in the fancy : and 
 when anything is heard, we reckon it not, but the hearing or sound only, 
 which is our fancy or conception of it by the ear ; and such are names of 
 fancies. 
 
 Fourthly, we bring into account, consider, and give names, to " names '' 
 themselves, and to " speeches :" -for "general," " uiiiversal," "special," 
 " equivocal," are names of names. And " affirmation," " interrogation," 
 "commandment," "narration," "syllogism," "sermon," "oration," and 
 many other such, are names of speeches. And this is all the variety of 
 names " positive ; " which are put to mark somewhat which is in Nature, or 
 may be feigned by the mind of man, as bodies that are, or may be con- 
 ceived to be ; or of bodies, the properties that are, or may be feigned to 
 be J or words and speech. 
 
 There be also other names, called "negative," which are notes to signify 
 that a word is not the name of the thing in question ; as these words, 
 "nothing," " no man," " infinite," "indocible, "three want four," and 
 the like ; which are nevertheless of use in reckoning, or in correcting of 
 reckoning, and call to mind our past cogitations, though they be not names 
 of anything, because they make us refuse to admit of names not rightly 
 used. 
 — All other names are but insignificant sounds ; and those of two sorts. 
 One when they are new,*nd yet their meaning not explained by definition ; 
 whereof there have been abundance coined by schoolmen, and puzzled 
 philosophers. 
 
 Another, when men make a name of two names, whose significations are 
 contradictory and inconsistent ; as this name, an " incorporeal body," or, 
 which is all one, an "incorporeal substance," and a great number more. 
 For whensoever any affirmation is false, the two names of which it is com- 
 posed, put together and made one, signify nothing at all. For example, if 
 it be a false affirmation to say " a quadrangle is round," the word "round 
 quadrangle " signifies nothing, but is a mere sound. So likewise, if it be 
 false to say that virtue can be poured, or blown up and down, the words 
 " inpoured virtue," " inblown virtue," are as absurd and insignificant as a 
 " round quadrangle." And therefore you shall hardly meet with a senseless 
 and msigmficant word, that is not made up of some Latin or Greek names. 
 A Frenchman seldom hears our Saviour called by the name of faroU, 
 but by the name of verbs often ; yet verbe and parole differ no more, but 
 that one is Latm, the other French. 
 
 When a man, upon the hearing of any speech, hath those thoughts which 
 the words of that speech and their connection were ordained and consti. 
 tuted to signify then he is said to understand it: "understanding" 
 being nothing else but conception caused by speech. And therefore if' 
 speech be pecuhar to man, as for aught I know it is, then is understanding- 
 peculiar to hira also And therefore of absurd and false affirmations, ffi 
 case they be universal, there can be no understanding ; though many th nk 
 hey understand tten, when they do but repeat the words softly, or con 
 them m their mind. ■" 
 
 n,3^r^i!^!?^MT^??' ^^^% '1^^ appetites, aversions, and passions of 
 
OF REASON AND SCIENCE. 27 
 
 The names of such things as affect us, that is, which please and displease 
 us, because all men be not alike affected with the same tiling, nor the same 
 man at all limes, are in the common discourses of men of "inconstant" 
 signification. For seeing all names are imposed to signify our conceptions, 
 and all our affections are but conceptions, when we conceive tl;e same 
 things differently, we can hardly avoid different naming of them. For 
 though the nature of that we conceive, be the same ; yet the diversity of 
 our reception of it, in respect of different constitutions of body, and 
 prejudices of opinion, gives everything a tincture of our different passions. 
 And therefore in reasoning a man must take heed of words ; which besides 
 the signification of what we imagine of their nature, have a signification 
 also of the nature, disposition, and interest of the speaker ; such as are the 
 names of virtues and vices ; for one man calleth " wisdom," what another 
 calleth "fear ;" and one " cruelty," what another "justice ;" one "prodi- 
 gality," what another "magnanimity;" and one "gravity," what another 
 "stupidity," &c. And therefore such names can never be true grounds of 
 any ratiocination. No more can metaphors, and tropes of speech ; but 
 these are less dangerous, because they profess their inconstancy ; which the 
 other do not. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Of Reason and Science. 
 
 When a man " reasoneth," he does nothing else but conceive a sum total, 
 from " addition " of parcels ; or conceive a remainder, from " subtraction " 
 of one sum from agpther ; which, if it be done by words, is conceiving of 
 the consequence of the names of all the parts, to the name of the whole ; or 
 from the names of the whole and one part, to the name of the other part. 
 And though in some things, as in numbers, besides adding and subtracting, 
 men name other operations, as "multiplying" and " dividing," yet they are 
 the same ; for multiplication is but adding together of things equal ; and 
 division but subtracting of one thing, as often as we can. These operations 
 are not incident to numbers only, but to all manner of things that can be 
 added together, and taken one out of another. For as arithmeticians teach 
 to add and subtract in "numbers," so the geometricians teach the same 
 in "lines," "figures," solid and superficial, "angles," "proportions," 
 "times," degrees of "swiftness," "force," "power," and the like; the 
 logicians teach the same in "consequences of words," adding together two 
 "names" to make an "affirmation," and two "affirmations'" to make a 
 " syllogism ; " and " many syllogisms" to make a "demonstration ; " and 
 from the "sum," or "conclusion" of a "syllogism," they subtract one 
 " proposition " to find the other. Writers of politics add together " pac- 
 tions " to find men's " duties ; '' and lawyers " laws" and " facts," to find 
 what is " right " and ' ' wrong " in the actions of private men. In sum, in 
 what matter soever there is place for "addition " and " subtraction," there ' 
 also is place for " reason ;" and where these have no place, there " reason 
 has nothing at all to do. 
 
 Out of all which we may define, that is to say determine, what that is, 
 which is meant by this word " reason," when we reckon it amongst the 
 faculties of the mind. For " reason," in this sense, is nothing but " reckon- 
 ing," that is adding and subtracting, of the consequences of general names 
 agreed upon for the " marking " and " signifying " of our thoughts ; I say 
 " marking " them when we reckon by ourselves, and "signifying," when 
 we dejnoBstrate or approve our reckonings to other men. 
 
28 OP MAM. 
 
 And, as in arithmetic, unpractised men must, and professors themselVeS 
 may often, err, and cast up false ; so also in any other subject of reasoning^ 
 the ablest, most attentive, and most practised men may deceive themselves, 
 and infer false conclusions ; not but that reason itself is always right reason, 
 as well as arithmetic is a certain and infallible art : but no one man s 
 reason, nor the reason of any one number of men, makes the certainty ; no 
 more than an account is therefore well cast up, because a great many men 
 have unanimously approved it. And therefore, as when there is a contro- 
 versy in an account, the parties must by their own accord set up, for right 
 reason, the reason of some arbitrator, or judge, to whose sentence they will 
 both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, 
 for want of a right reason constituted by Nature ; so is it also in all debates 
 of what kind soever. And when men that think themselves wiser than all 
 others, clamour and demand right reason for judge, yet seek no more, but 
 that things should be determined by no other men's reason but their own, it 
 is as intolerable in the society of men, as it is in play after trump is turned, 
 to use for trump on every occasion, that suit whereof they have most in 
 their hand. For they do nothing else, that will have every of their passions, 
 as it comes to bear sway in them, to be taken-for right reason, and that in 
 their own controversies : bewraying their want of right reason, by the claim 
 they lay to it. 
 
 The use and end of reason is not the finding of the sum and truth of one, 
 or a few consequences, remote from the first definitions, and settled signi- 
 fications of names, but to begin at these, and proceed from one consequence 
 to another. For there can be no certainty of the last conclusion, without a 
 certainty of all those affirmations and negations on which it was grounded 
 and inferred. As when a master of a family, in taking an account, casteth 
 up the sums of all the bills of expense into one sum, and not regarding how 
 each bill is summed up by those that give tliem in account, nor what it is 
 he pays for, he advantages himself no more than if he allowed the account 
 in gross, trusting to every of the accountants' skill and honesty : so also in 
 reasoning of all other things, he that takes up conclusions on the trust of 
 authors, and doth not fetch them from the first items in every reckoning, 
 which are the significations of names settled by definitions, loses his labour, 
 and does not know anything, but only believeth. 
 
 When a man reckons without the use of words, which may be done in 
 particular things, as when upon the sight of any one thing, we conjecture 
 what was likely to have preceded, or is likely to follow upon it ; if that 
 wMch he thought likely to follow, follows not, or that which he thought 
 likely to have preceded it, hath not preceded it, this is called " error ;" to 
 which even the most prudent men are subject. But when we reason m 
 words of general signification, and fall upon a general inference which 
 is false, though it be commonly called " error," it is indeed an "absurdity," 
 or senseless speech. For error is but a deception, in presuming that some- 
 what is past, or to come ; of which, though it were not past, or not to come, 
 yet there was no impossibihty discoverable. But when we make a general 
 assertion, unless it be a true one, the possibility of it is inconceivable;. 
 And words whereby we conceive nothing but the sound, are those we call 
 "absurd," "insignificant," and "nonsense." And therefore if a man 
 should talk to me of a " round quadrangle ; " or, " accidents of bread in 
 cheese ; " or, ' ' immaterial substances ; " or of " a free subject ; " " a free 
 will ; " or any "free," but free from being hindered by opposition, I should 
 not say he were in an error, but that his words were without meaning, that 
 is to say, absurd. 
 
 I have said before, in the second chapter, that a man did excel all other 
 annnals in this faculty, that when he conceived anything whatsoever, he 
 
Of REASON And science. 2$ 
 
 was apt to inquire the consequences of it, and what effects he could do 
 with it. And now I add this other degree of the same excellence, that he 
 can by words reduce the consequences he finds to general rules, called 
 "theorems," or "aphorisms ;" that is, he can reason, or reckon, not only 
 in number, but in all other things, whereof one may be added unto, or 
 subtracted from another. 
 
 But this privilege is allayed by another ; and that is, by the privilege of 
 absurdity ; to which no living creature is subject, but man only. And of 
 men, those are of all most subject to it, that profess philosophy. For it is 
 most true that Cicero saith of them somewhere ; that there can be nothing 
 so absurd, but may be found in the books of philosophers. And the 
 reason is manifest. For there is not one of them that begins his ratioci- 
 nation from the definitions, or explications of the names they are to use ; 
 which ii a method that hath been used only in geometry ; whose conclu- 
 sions have thereby been made indisputable. 
 
 I. The first cause of absurd conclusions I ascribe to the want of method; 
 in that they begin not their ratiocination from definitions ; that is, from 
 settled significations of their words ; as if they could cast account, without 
 knowing the value of the numeral words "one," " two," and "three." 
 
 And whereas all bodies enter into account upon divers considerations, 
 which I have mentioned in the precedent chapter ; these considerations 
 being diversely named, divers absurdities proceed from the confusion, and 
 unfit connection of their names into assertions. And therefore, 
 
 II. The second cause of absurd assertions, I ascribe to the giving of 
 names of "bodies " to 'accidents;' or of " accidents " to "bodies;" as 
 they do that say, " faith is infused," or "inspired;" when nothing can 
 be "poured "or " breathed " into anything, but body ; and that "exten- 
 sion " is "body; " that "phantasms" are " spirits," &c. 
 
 III. The third I ascribe to the giving of the names of the " accidents " of 
 " bodies without us," to the " accidents " of our " own bodies ; " as they 
 do that say, "the colour is in the body ; '' " the sound is in the air, " &c. 
 
 IV. The fourth, to the giving of the names of "bodies " to " names," or 
 " speeches ; " as they do that say, that " there be things universal ; " that 
 " a living creature is genus," or " a general thing," &c. 
 
 V. The fifth, to the giving of the names of " accidents " to "names'* 
 and "speeches;" as they do that say, "the nature of a thing is its 
 definition ; a man's command is his will ; '' and the like. 
 
 VI. The sixtli, to tlie use of metaphors, tropes, and other rhetorical 
 figures, instead of words proper. For though it be lawful to say, for 
 example, in common speech, " the way goeth, or leadeth hither or thither ; " 
 " the proverb says this or that," whereas ways cannot go, nor proverbs 
 speak ; yet in reckoning, and seeking of truth, such speeches are not to be 
 admitted. 
 
 VII. The seventh, to names that signify nothing ; but are taken up and 
 learned by rote from the schools, as " hypostatical," "transubstantiate," 
 " consubstantiate," " eternal-now," and the like canting of schoolmen. 
 
 To him that can avoid these things it is not easy to fall into any absurdity, 
 unless it be by the length of an account ; wherein he may perhaps forget 
 what went before. For all men by nature reason alike, and well, when 
 they have good principles. For who is so stupid, as both to mistake in 
 geometry, and also to persist in it, when another detects his error to him ? 
 
 By this it appears that reason is not, as sense and memory, born with us ; 
 nor gotten by experience only, as prudence is ; but attained by industry ; 
 first in apt imposing of names ; and secondly by getting a good and orderly 
 method in proceeding from the elements, which are names, to assertions 
 made by connection of one ot them to another ; and so to syllogisms, which 
 
^o OF MAN. 
 
 are the connections of one assertion to anotlier, till we come '9 ^ ''""^'^ffe 
 
 i of all the consequences of names appertaining to the subject in hand ana 
 
 ' that is it, men call "science." And whereas sense and memory are bu 
 
 ^ knowledge of fact, which is a thing past and irrevocable J'"="=f j^ 
 
 the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact «P°" another 
 
 by which, out of that we can presently do, we know how to do somethmg 
 
 else when we will, or the like another time ; because when we see how any- 
 
 thing comes about, upon what causes, and by what manner ; when the ke 
 
 causis come into our power, we see how to make it produce the like 
 
 ^ Children therefore are not endued with reason at aU, tiU they have 
 attained the use of speech; but are called reasonable creatures, for the 
 possibility apparent of having the use of reason in lime to come. And the 
 most part of men, though they have the use of reasoning a little way, as m 
 numbering to some degree ; yet it serves them to httle use in common life ; 
 in which they govern themselves, some better, some worse, according to 
 their differences of experience, quickness of memory, and inclinations to 
 several ends ; but specially according to good or evil fortune, and the errors 
 of one another. For as for "science," or certain mles of their actions, 
 they are so far from it, that they know not what it is. Geometry they have 
 thought conjuring : but for other sciences, they who have not been taught 
 the beginnings and some progress in them, that they may see how they be 
 acquired and generated, are in this point like children, that having no 
 thought of generation, are made believe by the women that their brothers 
 and sisters are not born, but found in the garden. 
 
 But yet they that have no " science," are in better and nobler condition, 
 with their natural prudence ; than men, that by mis- reasoning, or by tn^t- 
 ing them that reason wrong, fall upon false and absurd general rules. For 
 ignorance of causes, and of mles, does not set men so far out of their way, 
 as relying on false rules, and taking for causes of what tilts' aspire to, those 
 that are not so, but rather causes of the contrary. 
 
 To conclude, the light of human minds is perspicuous words, but by 
 exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity ; "reason" is 
 the " pace ; " increase of " science, the " way ; " and the benefit of -man- 
 kind, the "end." And, on the contrary, metaphors, and senseless and 
 ambiguous words, are like i^es fatui; and reasoning upon them Ls 
 wandering amongst innumerable absurdities and their end, contention and 
 sedition, or contempt. 
 
 As much experience, is ''prudence; " so, is much science "sapience.!' 
 For though we usually have one name of wisdom for them both, yet the 
 Latins did always distinguish between prudentia and sapientia ; ascribing 
 the former to experience, the latter to science. But to make their diflference 
 appear more clearly, let us suppose one man endued with an excellent 
 natural use and dexterity iu handling his arms ; and another to have added 
 to that dexterity, an acquired science, of where he can offend, or be 
 offended by his adversary, in every possible posture or guard : the ability 
 of the former, would be to the ability of the latter, as prudence to sapience ; 
 both useful ; but the latter infallible. But they that trusting only to the 
 authority of books, follow the blind blindly, are like him that, trusting to 
 the false rules of a master of fence, ventures presumptuously upon an 
 adversary, that either kills or disgraces him. 
 
 The signs of science are, some certain and infallible ; some, uncertain. 
 Certain, when he that pretendeth the science of anything, can teach the 
 same ; that is to say, demonstrate the trath thereof perspicuously to 
 another ; uncertain, when only some particular events answer to his 
 pretence, and upon many occasions prove so as he says they must. Signs. 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 31 
 
 of prudence are all uncertain ; because to observe by expcritnce, and 
 remember all circumstances that may alter the success, is impossible. But 
 in any business, whereof a man has not infallible science to proceed by ; to 
 forsake his own natural judgment, and be guided by general sentences read 
 in authors, and subject to many exceptions, is a sign of folly, and generally 
 scorned by the name .of pedantry. And even of those men themselves, 
 that in councils of the commonwealth love to show their reading of politics 
 and histoiy, very few do it in their domestic aiifairs, where their particular 
 interest is concerned ; having prudence enough for their private affairs : but 
 in public they study more the reputation of their own wit, than the success 
 of another's business. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Of the Interior Beginnings of Voluntary Motions ; commonly called the 
 Passions ; and the Speeches by which they are expressed. 
 
 Therk be in animals, two sorts of "motions" peculiarto them : one called 
 " vital ; " begun in generation, and continued without interruption through 
 their whole life ; such as are the "course " of the "blood," the "pulse," 
 the "breathing," the "concoction, nutrition, excretion," &c., to which 
 motions there needs no help of imagination : the other is " animal motion," 
 otherwise called "volimtary motion ; " asto " go," to "speak," to "move" 
 any of our limbs, in such manner as is first fancied in our minds. That 
 sense is motion in the organs and interior parts of man's body, caused by the 
 action of the things we see, hear, &c. ; and that fancy is but the relics of the 
 same motion, remaining after sense, has been already seen in the first and 
 second chapters. And because " going," "speaking," and the like voluntary 
 motions, depend always upon a precedent thought of ' ' whither," " which 
 way," and " what ; " it is evident, that the imagination is the first internal 
 beginning of ali voluntaiy motion. And although unstudied men do not con- 
 ceive any motion at all to be there, where the thing moved is invisible ; or the 
 space it is moved in is, for the shortness of it, insensible ; yet that doth not 
 hmder, but that such motions are. For let a space be never so little, that 
 whidi is moved over a greater space, whereof that little one is part, must 
 first be moved over that. These small beginnings of motion, within the body 
 of mpn, before they appear in walking, speaking, striking, and other visible 
 actions, are commonly called "endeavour." 
 
 Tliis endeavour, when it is toward something which causes it, is called 
 "appetite," or "desire;" the latter, being the general name; and the 
 other oftentimea restrained to signify the desire of food, namely "hunger " 
 and "thirst." And when the endeavour is fromward something, it is 
 generally called "aversion." Tbese words, " appetite " and "aversion," 
 we have from the Latins ; and Ihey both of them signify the motions, one 
 of ^proaching, the other of retiring. So also do the Greek words for the 
 same, which are op/ii} and li^opft)}. f or Nature itself does often press upon 
 mei». those truths, which afterwards, when they look for somewhat beyond 
 Nttttire, they stumble at. For the schools find in mere appetite to go, or 
 move, no actual motion at all : but becau.«? some motion they must acknow- 
 Ic^, they call it metaphorical mot''— ; which is but an absurd speech : for 
 tlwagh words may be called metaphorical, bodies and motions cannot. 
 
 Ttiat which men desire, th'^y are also said to " love : " and to " hate " 
 those things for \^ich thevhave aversion. So that desire and love are the 
 same thing ; save that by dtsire, we always signify the absence of the 
 
32 OF MAN. 
 
 object ; by love most commonly the presence of the same. So also by 
 aveioion, we signify the abseace ; and by hate, the presenceof the object. 
 
 Of appetites and aversions, some are born with men ; as appetite of food, 
 .ippetite of excretion, and exoneration, which may also and more properly 
 be called aversions, from somewhat they feel in their bodies ; and some 
 other appetites, not many. The rest, which are appetites of particular 
 things, proceed from experience, and trial of their effects upon themselves 
 or other men. For of things we know not at all, or believe not to be, we 
 can have no further desire than to taste and try. But aversion we have for 
 things, not only which we know have hurt us, but also that we do not know 
 whether they will hurt us, or not. 
 
 Those things which we neither desire, nor hate, we are said to 
 "contemn;" "contempt" being nothing else birt an immobility, or con- 
 tumacy of the heart, in resisting the action of certain things ; and proceeding 
 from that the heart is already moved otherwise, by other more potent 
 objects ; or from want of experience of them. 
 
 And because the constitution of a man's body is in continual mutation, i, 
 is impossible that all the same things should always cause in him the sam:: 
 appetites and aversions : much less can all men consent, in the desire of 
 almost any one and the same object. 
 
 But whatsoever is the object of any man's appetite or desire, that is it 
 which he for his part calleth "good:" and the object of his hate and 
 aversion, "evil ;" and of his contempt, "vile" and "inconsiderable." For 
 these words of good, evil, and contemptible, ara ever used with relation to 
 the person that useth them : there being nothing simply and absolutely so ; 
 nor any common rule of good and evil, to be taken from the nature of the 
 objects themselves; but from the person of the man, where there is no 
 commonwealth ; or, in a com'noiiwealth. from the person that representeth 
 it ; or from an arbitrator or judge, whom men disagreeing shall by consent 
 set up, and make his sentence the rule thereof. 
 
 The Latin tongue has two words, whose significations approach to those 
 of good and evil ; but are not precisely the same ; and those are pulchrum 
 and turpe._ Whereof the former signifies that, which by some apparent 
 signs promiseth good ; and the latter, that which promiseth evil. But in 
 our tongue we have not so general names to express them by. But for ««/- 
 c,5/-«OT we say in some things, "fair;" in others, "beautiful," or "hand- 
 some," or " gallant," or " honourable," or "comely," or " amiable ■ " and 
 ^axlurpe, "foul, ' "deformed," "ugly," "base," "nauseous," and the like, as 
 the subject shall requu'e ; all which words, in their proper places, signify 
 nothmg else but the " mien," or countenance, that promiseth good and evil. 
 So that of good there be three kinds ; good in the promise, that is pulchrum ; 
 good m eSect, as the end desired, which is caWeijucuiidum, "delightful ;" 
 and good as the means, which is called utile, " profitable ;" and as many of 
 evil : for evil in promise, is that they call hirpe; evil in effect, and end, 
 ismolesium, impleasant,' " troublesome ;" and evil in the means, Inu/il', 
 "unprofitable," "hurtful." 
 
 As, in sense that which is really within us, is, as I have said before, only 
 motion, caused by the action of external objects, but in apparence ; to the 
 sight, light and colour ; to the ear, sound ; to the nostril, odour, &c. ; so, 
 when the action of the same object is continued from the eyes, ears, and 
 other organs to the heart, the re^l effect there is nothing but motion, ot 
 endeavour ; which consisteth in appr-^tiJe, or aversion, to or from the object 
 Y?7v ^il. „ " ,. apparence, or sense ot Jjat motion- is that we either call 
 "delight," or "trouble ofmind." 
 
 "7r'l.T''T;, T*''''^ 'f, '^^^^ appetite, and for the apparence of it 
 dehght, ' and " pleasure, seemeth to be a eorrobcration of vital motion and 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 33 
 
 a help thereunto ; and therefore such things as caused dehght, were not 
 improperly called jucunda, a juvando, from helping or fortifying; and tlie 
 contrary molesia, "offensive/' from hindering, and troubling the motion 
 vitah 
 
 " Pleasure" therefore, or "delight," is the apparence, or sense of good; 
 and " molestation," or " displeasure," the apparence, or sense of evil. And 
 consequently all appetite, desire, and love, is accompanied with some 
 delight more or less ; and all haired and aversion, with more or less dis- 
 pleasure and offence. 
 
 Of pleasures or deliglits, some^arise from the sense of an object present ; 
 and those may be called "pleasure of sense ;" the word "sensual, as it is 
 used by those only that condenm them, having no place till there be laws. 
 Of this kind are all onerations and exonerations of the body ; as also all 
 that is pleasant, in the ' ' sight, " " hearing," " smell," " taste," or ' ' touch." 
 Others arise from the expectation, that proceeds from foresight of the 
 end, or consequence of things ; whether those things in the sense please or 
 displease. And these are "pleasures of the mind" of him that draweth 
 those consequences, and are generally called "joy."' In the like manner, 
 displeasures are some in the sense, and called "pain ;'' others in the expec- 
 tation of consequences, and are called " grief." 
 
 These simple passions called "appetite," "desire," "love," "aversion," 
 "hate," "joy," and "grief," have their names for divers considerations 
 diversified. As first, when they one succeed another, they are diversely 
 called from the opinion men have of the likelihood of attaining what they 
 desire. Secondly, from the object loved or hated. Thirdly, from the con- 
 sideration of many of them together. Fourthly, from the alteration or 
 succession itself. 
 
 For "appetite," with an opinion of attaining, is called "hope." 
 
 The same, without such opinion, "despair." 
 
 " Aversion," with opinion of " hurt " from the object, " fear." 
 
 The same, with hope of avoiding that hurt by resistance, " courage." 
 
 Sudden "courage," "anger." 
 
 Constant "hope," "confidence'' of ourselves. 
 
 Constant "despair," "diffidence" of ourselves. 
 
 " Anger'' for great hurt done to another, when we conceive the same to 
 be done by injury, "indignation." 
 
 " Desire " of good to another, "benevolence," "goodwill," "charity."' 
 If to man generally, " good-nature." 
 
 " Desire " of riches, " covetousness ; " a name used always in significa- 
 tion of blame ; becauFC men contending for them, are displeased with one 
 another attaining them ; though the desire in itself, be to be blamed, or 
 allowed, according to the means by which these riches are sought. 
 
 "Desire" of office, or precedence, "ambition:" a name used also in 
 the worse sense, for the reason before mentioned. 
 
 " Desire " of things that conduce but a little to our ends, and fear of 
 things that are but of little hindrance, "pusillanimity." 
 
 " Contempt " of little helps and hindrances, " magnanimity." 
 
 " Magnanimity," in danger of death or wounds, "valour," "fortitude." 
 
 " Magnanimity " in the use of riches, " liberality." 
 
 "Pusillanimity" in the same, "wretchedness," " miserableness," or 
 " pareiniony_^Jl_aiiHAJii.e!i-o^^islTfcedv — — -~- "p 
 
 ^'Sve " of persons for society, "kindness.^ "_ 
 
 "T53Ve^ofTiersons-ftn~plEasing the sense only, "natural lust." 
 
 " Love " of the same, acquired from rumination, that is, imagination of 
 pleasure past, "luxuiy. " 
 
 " Love " of one singularly, with desire to be singularly beloved, " the 
 
 B 
 
34 OF MAN. 
 
 passion of love." The same, with fear that the love is not mutual, 
 "jealousy." 
 
 " Desire," by doing hurt to another, to make him condemn some fact of 
 his own, "revengefulness." 
 
 "Desire " to know wliy, and how, " curiosity ; " such as is in no living 
 creature but "man: " so that man is distinguished, not only by his reason, 
 but also by this singular passion from other " animals ; " in whom the 
 appetite of food, and other pleasures of sense, by predominance, take away 
 the care of knowing causes ; which is a lust of, the mind, that by a per- 
 severance of delight in the continual and indefatigable generation of know- 
 ledge, exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure. 
 
 " Fear "of power invisible, feigned by the mind, or imagined from tales 
 publicly allowed, "religion ;" not allowed "superstition." And when the 
 power imagined, is truly such as we imagine, "true religion." 
 
 " Fear," without the apprehension of why, or what, "panic terror,'' 
 called so from the fables that make Pan the author of them ; whereas in 
 iruth, there is always in him that so feareth, first, some apprehension of the 
 cause, though the rest run away by example, every one supposing his 
 fellow to know why. And therefore this passion happens to none but in a 
 throng, or multitude of people. 
 / "Joy," from apprehension of novelty, "admiration;'' proper to man, 
 ' because it excites the appetite of knowing the cause. 
 
 "Joy," arising from imagination of a man's own power and ability, is 
 that exultation of the mind which is called "glorying:" which if grounded 
 upon the experience of his own former actions, is the same with " confi- 
 dence : " but if grounded on the flattery of others, or only supposed by 
 himself, for delight in the consequences of it, is called "vain-glory ;" which 
 name is properly given ; because a well-grounded "confidence " begetteth 
 - attempt ; whereas the supposing of power does not, and is therefore rightly 
 called "vain." 
 
 " Grief," from opinon of want of power, is called " dejection" of mind. 
 
 The "vain-glory" which consisteth in the feigning or supposing of 
 abilities in ourselves, which we know are not, is most incident to young 
 men, and nourished by the histories or fictions of gallant persons ; and is 
 corrected oftentimes by age, and employment. 
 
 "Sudden glory," is the passion which maketh those "grimaces" called 
 " laughter ; " and is caused either by some sudden act of their own, that 
 pleaseth them ; or by tho apprehension of some deformed thing in another, 
 by comparison whereof they suddenly applaud themselves. And it is in- 
 cident most to them, that are conscious of the fewest abilities in themselves • 
 who are forced to keep themselves in their own favour, by observing the 
 imperfections of other men. And therefore much laughter at the defects of 
 others, is a sign of pusillanimity.. For cf great mind.-;, one of the proper 
 works IS, to help and free others from scorn; and compare themselves only 
 with the most able. 
 
 On the contrary, " sudden dejection," is the passion tliat causeth 
 
 weepmg ; and is caused by such accidents, as suddenly take away some 
 vehement hope, or some prop of their power : and they are most subject to 
 It, that rely principally on helps external, such as are women and children. 
 1 hererore some weep for the loss of friends ; others for their unkindness ; 
 others for the sudden stop made to their thoughts of revenge, by reconci- 
 liation. But m all cases, both laughter, and weeping, are siidden motions ; 
 custom taking them both away. For no man laughs at old jests; or 
 weeps for an old calamity. ' ' 
 
 "Grief," for the discovery of some defect of'ability, is "shame," or the 
 passion that discovereth itself in " blushing : " and consisteth in the appre- 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 35 
 
 hensionof something dishonourable ; and in young men is a sign of the 
 love of good reputation, and commendable : in old men it is a sign of the 
 same ; but because it comes too late, not commendable. 
 
 The "contempt" of good reputation is called "impudence." 
 
 " Grief," for the calamity of another, is " pity ; " and ariseth from the 
 imagination that the like calamity may befall himself; and therefore is 
 called also "compassion," and in the phrase of this present time a "fellow- 
 feeling : " and therefore for calamity arriving from great wickedness, the 
 best men have the least pity ; and for the same calamity, those hate pity, 
 that think themselves least obnoxious to the same. 
 
 "Contempt," or little sense of the calamity of others, is that which men 
 call "cruelty;" proceeding from security of their own fortune. For, that 
 any man should take pleasure in other men's great harms, without other 
 end of his own, I do not concetve it possible. 
 
 " Grief," for the sucdess of a competitor in wealth, honour, or other 
 good, if it be joined with endeavour to enforce our own abilities to equal or 
 exceed him, is called " emulation ;" but joined with endeavour to supplant, 
 or hinder a competitor, "envy." 
 
 Wheri in the mind of man, appetites, and aversions, hopes, and fears, 
 concerning one and the same thing, arise alternately ; and divers good and 
 evil consequences of the doing, or omitting the thing propounded, come 
 successively into our thoughts ; so that sometimes we have an appetite to 
 it ; sometimes an aversion from it ; sometimes hope to be able to do it ; 
 sometimes despair, or fear to attempt it; the whole sum of desires, aversions, 
 hopes and fears continued till the thing be either done, or thought impos- 
 sible, is that we call " deliberation." • 
 
 Therefore of things past, there is no "deliberation ; " because manifestly 
 impossible to be changed : nor of things known to be impossible, or 
 thought so ; because men know, or think, such deliberation vain. But of 
 things impossible, which we think possible, we may deliberate; not 
 knowing it is in vain. And it is called "deliberation ; " because it is a 
 putting an end to the " liberty " we had of doing or omitting according to 
 our own appetite, or aversion. 
 
 This alternate succession of appetites, aversions, hopes and fears, is no 
 less in other living creatures than in man: and therefore beasts also 
 deliberate. 
 
 Every " deliberation " is then said to '' end," when that whereof they 
 deliberate, is either done or thought impossible ; because till then-we retain 
 the liberty of doing or omitting, according to our appetite, or aversion. 
 
 In "deliberation," the last appetite, or aversion, immediately adhering 
 to the action, or to the omission thereof, is that we call the "will ;" the act, 
 not the faculty, of " vrilling." And beasts that have " deliberation," must 
 necessarily also Imve "will." The definition of the "will," given 
 commonly by the schools, that it is a "rational appetite," is not good. 
 For if it were, then could there be no voluntary act against reason. For a 
 " voluntary act " is that which proceedeth from the "win," and no other. 
 But if instead of a rational appetite, we shall say an appetite resulting from 
 a precedent deliberation, then the definition is the same that I have given 
 here. Will, therefore, is the last appetite in deliberating. And 
 though we say in common discourse, a man had a will once to do a thing, 
 that nevertheless he forbore to do ; yet that is properly but an inclination, 
 which makes no action voluntary ; because the action depends not of it, 
 but of the last inclination or appetite. For if the intervenient appetites, 
 make any action voluntary ; then by the same reason, all intervenient 
 aversions should make the same action involuntary ; and so one and *the 
 same action should be both voluntary and involuntary. 
 
 BZ. 
 
35 OF MAN. 
 
 I By this it is manifest, that not only actions that have their beginning from 
 covetousness, ambition, lust, or other appetites to the thing propounded ; 
 but also those tliat have their beginning from aversion, or fear of those 
 consequences that follow the omission, are " voluntary actions. ' 
 
 The forms of speech by which the passions are expressed, are partly the 
 same, 
 And I 
 
 love,'' i -^«., ' j-i, - -, ... ., , 
 
 some of them have particular expressions by themselves, which nevertheless 
 are not affirmations, unless it be when they serve to make other mferences, 
 besides that of the passion they proceed from. Deliberation is expressed 
 " subjunclively ; " which is a speech proper to signify suppositions, with 
 their consequences: as, "if this be done, then this will follow;" and 
 differs not from the language of reasoning, "save that reasoning is in general 
 words ; but deliberation for the most part is of pailiculars. The language 
 of desire, and aversion, is "imperative;" as "do this," " forbear that ;' 
 which when the party is obliged to do, or forbear, is " command ; " other- 
 wise " prayer ; " or else " counsel." The language of vain-glory, of indig- 
 nation, pity and revengefulness, "optative : " but of the desire to know, 
 there is a peculiar expression, calleil " julerrogative ; " as, "what is it, ' 
 "when shall it," " how is it done, " and " why so ? " other language of the 
 passions I find none : for cursing, swearing, reviling, and the like, do not 
 signify as speech ; but as the actions of a tongue accustomed. 
 
 These forms of speech, I say, are expressions, or voluntary significations 
 of our passions : but certain signs they be not ; because they may be used 
 arbitrarily, whether they that use them have. such passions or not. The be^ 
 signs of passions present, are either in the countenance, motions of the body, 
 actions, and ends, or aims, which we otherwise know the man to have. 
 
 And because in deliberation, the appetites, and aversions, are raised by 
 foresight of the good and evil consequences, and sequels of the action 
 whereof we deliberate ; the good or evil effect thereof dependelh on the 
 foresight of a long chain of consequences, of which very seldom any man is 
 able to see to the end. But for so far as a man seeth, if the good in those 
 consequences be greater than the evil, the whole chain is that which writers 
 call "apparent," or "seeming good." And contrarily, when the evil ex- 
 ceedeth the good, the whole is " apparent," or " seeming evil : " so that he 
 who hath by experience, or reason, the greatest and surest prospect of con- 
 sequences, deliberates best himself ; and is able when he will, to give the 
 best counsel unto others. 
 
 " Continual success " in obtaining those things which a man from time to 
 time desireth, that is to pay, continual prospering, is that men call " felicily ;" 
 I mean the felicity of this life. For there is no such thing as perpetual 
 tranquility of mind, while we live here ; because life itself is but motion, 
 and can never be without desire, nor without fear, no more than without 
 sense. What kind of felicity God hath ordained to tliem that devoutly 
 honour Him, a man shall no sooner know, than enjoy ; being joys, that 
 now are as incomprehensible as the word of school-men "beatifical 
 vision " is unintelligible. 
 
 The form of speech whereby men signify their opinion of the goodness of 
 anything, is " praise." That whereby they signify the power and greatness 
 of anything, is " magnifying." And that whereby they signify the opinion 
 they have of a man's felicity, is by the Greeks called /lOKupu^of, for which 
 we have no name in our tongue. And thus much is sufficient lor the present 
 purpose, to have been said of the " passions." 
 
OP THE ENDS OF DISCOURSE. 37 
 
 CHAPTER VIl. ' 
 
 0/tke Ends, or Resolutions of Discourse. 
 
 Of all " discourse," governed by desire of knowledge, there is at last an 
 "end," either by attaining, or by giving over. And in the chain of dis- 
 course, wheresoever it be interrupted, there is an end for that time. 
 
 If the discourse be merely mental, it consisteth of thoughts that the thing 
 will be, and will not be ; or that it has been, and has not been, alternately. 
 So that wheresoever you break off the chain of a man's discourse, you leave 
 him in a presumption of " it will be," or, "it will not be ;" or, " it has 
 been," or, "has not^been." All which is "opinion." And that which is 
 alternate appetite, in deliberating concerning good and evil ; the same is 
 alternate opinion, in the enquiry of the truth of " past," and " future." And 
 as the last appetite in delibeiation, is called the " will," so the last opinion 
 in search of the truth of past, and future, is called the " judgment," or " reso- 
 lute " and " final sentence " of him that " discourseth." And as the whole 
 chain of appetites alternate, in the question of good, or bad, is called "de- 
 liberation ; so the whole chain of opinions alternate, in the question 
 of true, or false, is called " doubt." 
 
 No discourse whatsoever can end in absolute knowledge of fact, past or 
 tocome. For, as for the knowledge of fact, it is originally sense ; and ever 
 after, memory. And for the knowledge of consequence, which I have said 
 before is called science, it is not absolute, but conditional. No man 
 can know by discourse, that this or that is, has been, or will be ; which is 
 to know absolutely ; but only, that if this be, that is ; if this has been, that 
 has been ; if ihis shall be, that shall be ; which is to know conditionally ;■ 
 and that not the consequence of one thing to another, but of one name of a 
 thing to another name of the same thing. 
 
 And therefore, when the discourse is put into speech, and begins with the 
 defijiitions of words, and proceeds by connection of the same into general 
 affirmations, and of tliese again into syllogisms ; the end or last sum is called 
 the conclusion, aud the thought of the mind by it signified, is that con- 
 ditional knowledge, or knowledge of the consequence of words, which 
 is commonly ealled "science." But if the first ground of such discourse, be 
 not definitions ; or if the definitions be not rightly joined together into 
 syllogisms, then the end or conclusion, is again "opinion," namely of the 
 truth of somewhat said, though sometimes in absurd and senseless words, 
 without possibility of being understood. When two or more men know of 
 one and the same fact, they are said to be "conscious " of it one to anotl\grj^ 
 which is as much as to know it together. And because such are fittest -n 
 witnesses of the facts of one another, or of a third : it was, and ever will be, < 
 reputed a very evil act, for any man to speak against his " conscience : " or i 
 to corrupt or force another so to do : insomuch that the plea of conscience 
 has been always hearkened unto very diligently in all times. Afterwards, 
 men made use of the same word metaphorically, for the knowledge of iheir 
 own secret facts, and secret thoughts ; and therefore it is rhetorically said, 
 that the conscience is a thousand witnesses. And last of all, men vehe- 
 mently in love with their own new opinions, though never so absurd, and 
 obstinately bent to maintain them, gave those their opinions also that 
 reverenced name of conscience, as if they would have it seem unlawful to 
 
 change or speak against them ; and so pretend to know they are true, whea 
 
 they know at most, but that they think so. 
 
 When a man's discourse beginneth not at definitions, it beginneth either 
 
3* OP- MAM. 
 
 at some other contemplation of his own, and then it is still called opinion ; 
 or it beginneth at some saying of another, of whose ability to know 
 the truth, and of whose honesty in not deceiving, he doubteth not : and then 
 the discourse is not so much concerning the thing, as the person ; and the 
 resolution is called "belief," and "faith:" "faith," in the man, "belief," 
 both of the man, and of the truth of what he says. So that in 
 belief are two opinions ; one of the saying of the man, the other of his 
 virtue. To "have faith in," or " trust to," or " believe a man," signify the 
 same thing ; namely, an opinion of the veracity of the man ; but to 
 " believe what is said," signifieth only an opinion of the trath of the saying. 
 But we are to observe that this phrase, "I believe in," as also the 
 Latin, credo in, and the Greek, tnaTsva kg, are never used but in the 
 writings of divines. Instead of them, in other writings are put, " I believe 
 him," " I trust him ; " " I have faith in him ; " "I rely on him ; " and in 
 Latin credo illi, fido ilU: and in Greek, irioTsvia airui : and that this 
 singularity of the ecclesiastic use of the word hath raised many disputes 
 about the right object of the Christian faith. 
 
 But by "believing in," as it is in the creed, is meant, not trust in 
 the person ; but confession and acknowledgment of the doctrine. For not 
 only Christians, but all manner of men do so believe in God, as to hold all 
 for truth they hear him say, whether they understand it or not ; which is 
 all the faith and trust can possibly be had in any person whatsoever : but 
 they do not all believe the doctrine of the creed. 
 
 From whence we may infer, that when we believe any saying whatsoever 
 it be, to be true, from arguments taken, not from the thing itself, or from 
 the principles of natural "reason, but from the authority and good opinion 
 we have of him that hath said it ; then is the speaker, or person we believe 
 in, or trust in, and whose word we take, the object of our faith, and the 
 honour done in believing, is done to him only. And consequently, when 
 we believe that the Scriptures are the word of God, having no immediate 
 revelation from God Himself, our belief, faith, and trust is in the Church, 
 whose word we take, and acquiesce therein. And they that believe that 
 which a prophet relates unto them in the name of God, take the word of the 
 prophet, do honour to him, and in him trust, and believe, touching the 
 truth of what he relateth, whether he be a true or a false prophet. And so 
 it is also with all other history. For if I should not believe all that is 
 written by historians of the glorious acts of Alexander or Csesar, I do 
 not think the ghost of Alexander or Csssar had any just cause to be 
 offended, or anybody else, but the historian. If Livy say the gods 
 made once a cow speak, and we believe it not, we distrust not God therein, 
 but Livy. So that it is evident, that whatsoever we believe, upon no 
 other reason than what is drawn from authority of men only, and their 
 writings, whether they be sent from God or not, is faith in men only. 
 
 CHAPTER VlKf\ 
 
 0/iAe VirtMS commonly called Intellectual, and their contrary Defects. 
 
 Virtue generally, in all sorts of subjects, is somewhat that is valued for 
 eminence, and -consisteth in comparison. For if all things were equal in all 
 men, nothing would be prized. And by "virtues intellectual," are always 
 understood such abilities of the mind as men praise, value, and desire 
 should be in themselves ; and go commonly under the name of a "good 
 
INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES. 39 
 
 wit ; " though the same word " wit " be used also to distinguish one certain 
 ability from the rest. 
 
 These "virtues" are of two sorts, "natural," and "acquired." By 
 natural, I mean not that which a man hath from his birth : for that is 
 nothing else but sense ; wherein men differ so little one from another, and 
 torn brute beasts, as it is not to be reckoned amongst virtues. But I mean 
 |hat " wit " which is gotten by us» only and experienca; without method, 
 culture, or instruction. This "natural wit" consistetK principally in two 
 things, " celerity of imagining," that is, swift succession of one thought to 
 another, and steady direction to some approved end. On the contrary, a 
 slow imagination maketh that defect, or fault of the mind which is commonly 
 called " dulness," "stupidity," and sometimes by other names that signify 
 slowness of motion, or difficulty to be moved. 
 
 And this difference of quickness, is caused by the difference of men's 
 passions,; that love and dislike, some one thing, some another : and there- 
 fore some men's thoughts run one way, some another ; and are held to, and 
 observe differently the things that pass through their imagination. And 
 whereas in this succession of men's thoughts, there is nothing to observe in 
 the things they think on, but either ifi what they be "like one another," 
 or in what they be "unlike," or " what they serve for," or " how they serve 
 to such a purpose ; " those that observe their similitudes, in case they be 
 such as are but rarely observed by others, are said to have a " good wit ; " 
 by which, in this occasion, is meant a " good fancy." But they that 
 observe their differences and dissimilitudes : which is called " distinguish- 
 ing," and "discerning," and "judging" between thing and thing; in case 
 such discerning be not easy, are said to have a " good judgment : " and 
 particularly in matter of conversation and business ; wherein times, places, 
 and persons are to be discerned, this virtue is called " discretion." The 
 former, that is, fancy, without the help of judgment, is not commended as a 
 virtue : but the latter, which is judgment, and discretion, is commended for 
 itself, without (the help of fancy. Besides the discretion of times, places, 
 and persons, necessary to a good fancy, there is required also an often 
 application of his thoughts to their end ; that is to say, to some use to be 
 made of them. This done ; he that hath this virtue, will be easily fitted 
 with similitudes that vrill please, not only by illustrations of his discourse, 
 and adorning it with new and apt metaphors ; but also, by the rarity of 
 their invention. But without steadiness, and direction to some end, a great 
 fancy is one kind of madness ; such as they have, that entering into any 
 discourse, are snatched from their purpose by everything that comes in their 
 thought, into so many and so long digressions, and parentheses, that they 
 utterly lose themselves : which kind of folly I know no particular name for ; 
 but the cause of it is, sometimes want of experience ; whereby that seemeth 
 to a man new and rare, which doth not so to others, sometimes pusilla- 
 nimity ; by which that seems great to him, which other men think a trifle ; 
 and whatsoever is new, or great, and therefore thought fit to be told, with- 
 draws a man by degrees from the intended way of his discourse. 
 
 In a good poem, whether it be "epic," or "dramatic;" as also in 
 "sonnets," "epigrams," and other pieces, both judgment and fancy are 
 required ; but the fancy must be more eminent ; because they please for the 
 extravagancy ; but ought not to displease by indiscretion. 
 
 In a good history, the judgment must be eminent; because the goodness 
 consisteth in the method, in the truth, and in the choice of the actions that 
 are most profitable to be knowii. Fancy has no place, but only in adorning 
 the style. 
 
 In orations of praise, and in invectives, the fancy is predominant ; because 
 the design is not truth, but to honour or dishonour; which is done by noble 
 
40 
 
 OF MAN. 
 
 or by vile comparisons. The judgment does but suggest what circumstances 
 make an action laudable, or culpable. 
 
 In hortatives, and pleadings, as truth or disguise serveth best to the 
 design in hand ; so is the judgment or the fancy most required. 
 
 In demonstiation, in counsel, and all rigorous search of truth, judgment 
 does all, except sometimes the understanding have need to be opened by 
 some apt similitude ; and then there is so much use of fancy. But for 
 metaphors, they are in this case uttery excluded. For seeing they openly 
 profess deceit ; to admit them into counsel or reasoning were manifest 
 ■folly. 
 
 And in any discourse whatsoever, if the defect of discretion be apparent, 
 how extravagant soever the fancy be, the whole discourse will be taken for 
 a sign of want of wit ; and so will it never when the discretion is manifest, 
 though the fancy be never so ordinary. 
 
 The secret thoughts of a man run over all things, holy, profane, clean, 
 obscene, grave and light, without shame, or blame ; which verbal discourse 
 cannot do, farther than the judgment shall approve of the time, place, and 
 persons. An anatomist or a physician may speak, or write his judgment 
 of unclean things ; because it is not fo please, but profit : but for another 
 man to write his extravagant and pleasant fancies of tlie same, is as if a 
 man, from being tumbled into the dirt, should come and present himself 
 before good company. And it is the want of discretion that makes the 
 difference. Again, in professed remissness of mind, and familiar company, 
 a man may play with the sounds and equivocal significations of words; 
 and that many times with encounteis of extraordinary fancy : but in a 
 sermon, or in public, or before persons unknown, or whom we ought to 
 reverence, there is no gingling of words that will not be accounted folly : 
 and the difference is only in the want of discretion. So that where wit is 
 wanting, it is not fancy that is wanting, but discretion. Judgment therefore 
 without fancy is wit, but fancy without judgment, not. 
 
 When the thoughts of a man, that has a design in hand, running over a 
 miiltitude of things, observes how they conduce to that design ; or what 
 design they may conduce unto ; if his observations be such as are not easy, 
 or usual, this wit of his is called " prudence ; " and depends on much 
 experience, and memory of the like things and their consequences hereto- 
 fore. In which there is not so much difference of men, as there is in their 
 fancies and judgment ; because the experience of men equal in age, is not 
 much unequal as to the quantity ; but lies in different occasions ; every one 
 having his private designs. To govern well a family and a kingdom , are 
 not different degrees of prudence ; but different sorts of business ; no more 
 than to draw a picture in little, or as great, or greater than the life, are 
 different degrees of art. A plain husbandman is more prudent in affairs of 
 his own house, than a privy-councillor in the affairs of another man. 
 
 To prudence, if you add the use of unjust or dishonest means, such as 
 usually are prompted to men by fear, or want ; you have that crooked 
 wisdom whch is called " craft ; " which is a sign of pusillanimity. For 
 magnanimity is contempt of unjust or dishonest helps. And that 
 which the Latins call versutia, translated into English, " shifting," and is a 
 putting off of a present danger or incommodity, by engaging into a greater, 
 as when a man robs one to pay another, is but a shorter-sighted craft, 
 called versutia, from versura, which signifies taking money at usury for 
 the present payment of interest. 
 
 As for " acquired wit," I mean acquired by method and instruction, there 
 is none but reason ; which is grounded on the right use of speech, 
 and produceth the sciences. But of reason and science I have already 
 spoken, in the fifth and sixth chapters. 
 
INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES. 41 
 
 The causes of this difference of wits, are in the passions ; and the differ- 
 ence of passions proceedetli, partly from the different constitution of the 
 body, and partly from different education. For if the difference proceeded 
 from the temper of the brain, and the organs of sense, either exterior or 
 interior, there would be no less difference of men in their sight, hearing, or 
 other senses, than in their fancies and discretions. It proceeds therefore 
 from the passions ; which are different, not only from the difference of men's 
 complexions ; but also from their difference of customs, and education. 
 
 The passions that most of all cause the difference of wit, are principally, 
 the more or less desirsJjLpower, of riches, of knowledge, and of honour. 
 All which may be reduced to the first, that is, desire of power. For riches, 
 knowledge, and honour, are but several sorts of power. 
 
 And therefore, a man who has no great passion for any of these things ; 
 but is, as men teim it, indifferent ; though he may be so far a good man, 
 - as to be free from giving offence ; yet he cannot possibly have either a great 
 fancy, or much judgment. For the thoughts are to the desires, as scouts, 
 and spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things desired : all 
 steadiness of the mind's motion, and all quickness of the same, proceeding 
 from thence : for as to have no desire, is to be dead : so to have weak 
 passions, is dulness ; and to have passions indifferently for everything, 
 "giddiness," and " distraction ; " and to have stronger and more vehement 
 passions for anything, than is ordinarily seen in others, is that which men 
 call "madness." 
 
 Whereof there be almost as many kinds, as of the passions themselves. 
 Sometimes the extraordinary and extravagant passion, proceedeth from the 
 evil constitution of the organs of the body, or harm done them ; and some- 
 times the hurt and indisposition of the organs, is caused by the vehemence, 
 or long continuance of tlie passion. But in both cases the madness is of one 
 and the same nature. 
 
 The passion, whose violence, or continuance, maketh madness, is either 
 great " vain-glory ; " which is commonly called " pride," and " self-con- 
 ceit ;" or great " dejection " of mind. 
 
 Pride, subjecteth a man to anger, the excess whereof is the madness 
 called" rage" and "fury." And thus it comes to pass that excessive 
 desire of revenge, when it becomes liabilual, hurteth the organs, and 
 becomes rage : that excessive love, with jealousy, becomes also rage : ex- 
 cessive opinion of a man's own self, for divine inspiration, for wisdom, 
 learning, form and the like, becomes distraction and giddiness : the same, 
 joined with envy, rage ; vehement opinion of the truth of anything, contra- 
 dicted by others, rage. 
 
 Dejection subjects a man to causeless fears ; which is <i madness, 
 commonly called -"melancholy;" apparent also in divers manners; as in 
 haunting of solitudes and graves ; in superstitious behaviour ; and in fearing, 
 some one, some another particular thing. In sum, all passions that produce 
 strange and unusual behaviour, are called by the general name of madness. 
 But of the several kinds of madness, he that would take the pains, might 
 enrol a legion. And if the excesses be madness, there is no doubt but the 
 passions themselves, when they tend to evil, are degrees of the same. 
 
 For example, though the effect of folly, in them that are possessed of an 
 opinion of being inspired, be not visible always in one man, by any very 
 extravagant action, that proceedeth from such passion ; yet, when many of 
 tliem conspire together, the rage of the whole multitude,is visible enough. 
 For what argument of madness can there be greater, than to clamour, strike, 
 and throw stones at our best friends ? Yet this is somewhat less than such 
 a multitude will do. For they wUl clamour, fight against, and destroy 
 those, by whom all their lifetime before they have been protected, and 
 
42 OF MAN. 
 
 secured from injury. And if tliis be madness in the multitude, it is the 
 same in every particular man. For as in the midst of the sea, though _a 
 man perceive no sound of that part of the water next him, yet he is- 
 well assured, that part contributes as much to the roaring of the sea, as any 
 other part of the same quantity ; so also, though we perceive no great un- 
 quietness in one or two men, yet we may be well assured, that their singular 
 passions, are parts of the seditious roaring of a troubled nation. And if 
 there were nothing else that bewrayed their madness, yet that very 
 arrogating such inspiration to themselves, is argument enough. If some 
 man in Bedlam should entertain you with sober discourse ; and you desire 
 in taking leave, to know what he were, that you might another time requite 
 his civility ; and he should tell you, he were God the Father ; I think you 
 need expect no extravagant action for argument of his madness. 
 
 This opinion of inspiration, called commonly, private spirit, begins very 
 often, from some lucky finding of an error generally held by others ; and not 
 knowing, or not remembering, by what conduct of reason, they came to so 
 singular a truth (as they think it, though it be many times an untruth they 
 light on) they presently admire themselves, as being in the special grace of 
 God Almighty, who hath revealed the same to them supernatuially, by his 
 Spirit. 
 
 Again, that madness is nothing else, but too much appearing passion, 
 may be gathered out of the effects of wine, which are the same with those 
 of the evil disposition of the organs. For the variety of behaviour in men 
 that have drunk too much, is the same with that of madmen : some of them 
 raging, others loving, others laughing, all extravagantly, but according to 
 their several domineering passions: for the effect of the wine, does but re- 
 move dissimulation, and take from them the sight of the deformity of their 
 passions. For, I believe, the most sober men, when they walk alone 
 without care and employment of the mind, would be unwiUing the vanity 
 and extravagance of their thoughts at that time should be publicly seen ; 
 which is a confession, that passions unguided, are for the most part mere 
 madness. 
 
 The opinions of the world, both in ancient and later ages, concerning the 
 cause of madness, have been two. Some deriving them from the passions ; 
 some from demons, or spirits, either good or bad, which they thought 
 might enter into a man, possess him, and move his organs in such strange 
 and uncouth manner, as madmen use to do. The former sort, therefore, 
 called such men madmen : but the latter called them sometimes 
 " demoniacs," that is, possessed wiih spirits ; sometimes enur gumeni, that 
 is, agitated or moved with spirits ; and now in Italy they are called, not 
 wiy pazzi, madmen; but also spiritati, men possessed. 
 
 There was once a great conflux of people in Abdera, a city of the Greeks, 
 at the actmg of the tragedy of " Andromeda," upon an extreme hot day ; 
 whereupon, a great many of the spectators falling into fevers had this 
 accident from the heat, and from the tragedy together, that they did nothing 
 but pronounce iambics, with the names of Perseus and Andromeda ; which, 
 together with the fever, was cured by the coming on of winter ; and this 
 madness was thought to proceed from the passion imprinted by the tragedy 
 Likewise there reigned a fit of madness in another Grecian city, which 
 seized only the young maidens, and caused many of them to han<r them- 
 selves. This was by most then thought an act of the devil. But one that 
 siispected that contempt of hfe in them might proceed from some passion 
 of the mind, and supposing that they did not contemn also their honour, 
 gave counsel to the magistrates to strip such as so hanged themselves and 
 let them hang out naked. This, the stoiy say<, cured that madness. ' But 
 on the other side, the same Grecians did often ascribe madness to the 
 
INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES. 43 
 
 operation of Eumenides, or Furies ; and sometimes of Ceres, Phoebus, and 
 other gods ; so much did men attribute to phantasms, as to think them 
 aerial living bodies, and generally to call them spirits. And as the 
 Romans in this held the same opinion with the Greeks, so also did the 
 Jews ; for they call madmen prophets, or, according as they thought the 
 spirits good or bad, demoniacs : and some of them called both prophets 
 and demoniacs, madmen ; and some called the same man both demoniac 
 and madman. But for the Gentiles it is no wonder, because diseases and 
 health, vices and virtues, and many natural accidents, were with them termed 
 and worshipped as demons. So that a man was to understand by demon, 
 as well sometimes an ague as a devil. But for the Jews to have such 
 opinion is somewhat strange. For neither Moses nor Abraham pretended 
 to prophesy by possession of a spirit ; but from the voice of God ; or by a 
 vision or dream ; nor is there an3rthing in his law, moral or ceremonial, by 
 which they were taught, there was any such enthusiasm, or any possessiou. 
 When God is said (Numb. xi. 25) to take from the spirit that was in Moses, 
 and give to the seventy elders, the Spirit of God (taking it for the substance 
 of God) is not divided. The Scriptures, by the Spirit of God in man, 
 mean a man's spirit, inclined to godliness. And where it is said (Exod. 
 xxiii. 8) " whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom to make garments 
 for Aaron,'' is not meant a spirit put into them that can make garments, 
 but the wisdom of their own spirits in that kind of work. In the like 
 sense, the spirit of man, when it produceth unclean actions, is ordinarily 
 called an unclean spirit, and so other spirits, though not always, yet as 
 often as the virtue or vice so styled, is extraordinary and eminent. Neither 
 did tlie other prophets pf the Old Testament pretend enthusiasm ; or, that 
 God spake in them ; but to them, by voice, vision, or dream ; and the 
 "burthen of the Lord" was not possession, but command. How then 
 could the Jews fall into this opinion of possession ? I can imagine no 
 reason, but that which is common to all men, namely, the want of 
 curiosity to search natural causes : and their placing felicity in the acquisi- 
 tion of the gross pleasures of the senses, and the things that most 
 immediately conduce thereto. For they that see any strange and unusual 
 ability, or defect in a man's mind, unless they see withal, from what cause 
 it may probably proceed, can hardly think it natural ; and if not natural, 
 they must needs think it supernatural ; and then what can it be, but that 
 either God or the devil is in him ? And hence it came to pass, when our 
 Saviour (Mark iii. 21) was compassed about with the multitude, those of 
 the house doubted he was mad, and went out to hold him : but the Scribes 
 said he had Beelzebub, and that was it by which he cast out devils ; as if 
 the greater madman had awed the lesser ; and that (John x. 20) some said, 
 " he hath a devil, and is mad ; " whereas others holding him for a prophet, 
 said " these are- not the words of one that hath a devil." So in the Old 
 Testament he that came to anoint Jehu (2 Kings ix. 11) was a prophet ; but 
 some of the company asked Jehu " what came that madman for ? " So 
 that in sum, it is manifest, that whosoever behaved himself in extraordinary 
 manner, was thought by the Jews to be possessed either with a good or 
 evil spirit, except by the Sadducees, who erred so far on the other hand as 
 not to believe there were at all any spirits, which is very near to direct 
 atheism ; and thereby perhaps the more provoked others, to term such men 
 demoniacs, rather than madmen. 
 
 But why then does our Saviour proceed in the curing of them, as if they 
 were possessed ; and not as if they were mad ? To which I can give no 
 other kind of answer, but that which is given to those that urge the 
 Scripture in like manner against the opinion of the motion of the earth. 
 The Scripture was written to show unto men the kingdom of God, and to 
 
44 OF MAN. 
 
 prepare their minds to become his obedient subjects; leaving the world, 
 and the philosophy thereof, to the disputation of men, for the exercising of 
 their natural reason. Whether the earth's or sun's motion make the day, 
 and night ; or whether the exorbitant actions of men, proceed from passion, 
 or from the devil, so vi'e worship him not, it is all one, as to our odedience, 
 and subjection lo God Almighty ; which is the thing for which the 
 Sfripture was written, As for that our Saviour speaketh to the disease, as 
 to a person ; it is the usual phrase of all that cure by words only, as Christ 
 did, and enchanters pretend to do, whether they speak to a devil or not. 
 For is not Christ also said (Matt. viii. 26) to have rebuked the winds ? Is 
 not He said also (Luke iv. 39) to rebuke a fever ? Yet this does not argue 
 tliat a fever is a devil. And whereas many of the devils are said to confess 
 Christ ; it is not necessary to interpret those places otherwise, than that 
 those madmen confessed Him. And whereas our Saviour (Matt. xii. 43) 
 speaketh of an unclean spirit, that having gone out of a man, wandereth 
 through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, and returning into the 
 same man, with seven other spirits worse than himself ; it is manifestly a 
 parable, alluding to a man, that after a little endeavour to quit his lusts, is 
 vanquished by the strength of them ; and becomes seven times worse than 
 he was. So that I see nothing at all in the Scripture, that requireth a 
 belief that demoniacs were any other thing but madmen. 
 
 There is yet another fault in the discourses of some men ; which may 
 also be numbered amongst the sorts of madness ; namely, that abuse of 
 words, whereof I have spoken before in the fiftli chapter, by the name of 
 absurdity. And that is, when men speak such words, as put together, have 
 in them no signification at all ; but are fallen upon by some, through mis- 
 understanding of the words they have received, and repeat by rote ; by 
 others from intention to deceive by obscurity. And this is incident to none 
 but those, that converse in questions of matters incomprehensible, as the 
 schoolmen ; or in questions of abstruse philosophy. The common sort of 
 men seldom speak insignificantly, and are therefore by those other egregious 
 persons counted idiots. But to be assured their words are without any- 
 thing correspondent to them in the .mind, there would need some examples ; 
 which if any man require, let him take a schoolman in his hands and see 
 if he can translate any one chapter concerning any difficult point, as the 
 Trinity ; the Deity ; the nature of Christ ; transubstantiation ; free-will, &c., 
 into any of the modern tongues, so as to make the same intelligible ; or 
 into any tolerable Latin, such as they were acquainted withal, that lived 
 when the Latin tongue was vulgar. What is the meaning of these words, 
 " The first cause does not necessarily inflow anything into the second, by 
 force of the essential subordination of the second causes, by which it may 
 help it to work ? " They are the translation of the title. of the sixth chapter 
 of Suarez' first book, " Of the concourse, motion, and help of God." 
 When men write whole volumes of such stuff, are they not mad, or intend 
 to make others so ? And particularly, in the question of transubstantiation ; 
 where after certain words spoken ; they that say, the white««i, round«ejJ, 
 magni/«(&, qualify, corruptibility, all which are incorporeal, &<;., go out of 
 the wafer, into the body of our blessed Saviour, do they not make those 
 "nesses," "tudes," and "ties," to be so many spirits possessing his body? 
 For by spirits, they mean always things, that being incorporeal, are never- 
 . theless movable from one place to another. So that this kind of absurdity, 
 may rightly be numbered amongst the many sorts of madness ; and all the 
 time that guided by clear thoughts of their worldly lust, they forbear dis- 
 puting, or writing thus, but luciij intervals. And thus much of the virtues 
 atid 4e&cts intellectual, 
 
SUBJECTS OF KNOWLEDGE. 45 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Of the Several Subjects of Knowledge. 
 
 There are of " knowledge " two kinds ; whereof one is " knowledge of 
 fact ; " the other " knowledge of the consequence of one affirmation to 
 another." The former is nothing else but sense and memory, and is 
 " absolute knowledge ; " as when we see a fact doing, or remember it done : 
 and this is the knowledge required in a witness. The latter is called 
 " science," and is " conditional ; " as when we know that, " if the figure 
 shown be a circle, ^hen any straight line through the centre shall divide it 
 into two equal parts." And this is the knowledge required in a philosopher, 
 that is tO'Say, of him that pretends to reasoning. 
 
 The register of ' ' knowledge of fact " is called ' ' history. " Whereof there 
 be two sorts : one .called "natural history ; " wliich is the history of such 
 facts, or effects of Nature, as have no dependence on man's " will ; " such as 
 are the histories of "metals," " plants," " animals," "regions," and the 
 like. The other is " civil history ; " which is the history of the voluntary 
 actions of men in commonwealths. 
 
 The registers of science, are such " books " as contain the "demonstra- 
 tions " of consequences of one affirmation to another ; and are commonly 
 called ' ' books of philosophy ; " whereof the sorts are many, according to 
 the diversity of the matter ; and may be divided in such mancer ^s I have 
 divided them in the following table (pp. 46, 47). 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Of Power, Worth, Dignity, Honour, and Worthiness. 
 
 The "power of a man," to take it universally, i^_Jii9— presenT"means ; 
 to-obtaia-Scmfi-futurfeApparent-goodr : and is either '•' original " or " instru- 
 mental." 
 
 " Natural power," is the eminence of the faculties of body or mind ; as 
 extraordinary strength, form, prtidence, airts, eloquence, libeiiality, nobility. 
 " Instrumental " are those powers, which acquired by these, or by fortune, 
 a're means and instruments to acquire more : ar riches, reputation, friends, 
 and t he secret working of God, which men call good luck.. For the nature 
 of power IS iii lhl5 ^mt like to lame, mci'SaSing as it proceeds ; or like 
 the motion of heavy bodies, which the further they go, make still the more 
 haste. 
 
 The greatest of human powers, is that which is compounded of the 
 poweisjof" most men, united by consent^in one person, natural or civil, that 
 has the use of all their powers depending on his will ; such as is the power 
 or a commonwealth: or depending on the wills of each particular; such 
 as is the power of a faction or of divers factions leagued. Therefore tttfeavE 
 servants, -is -power ; t^ha,ye friends, .is power :_ for they are strengths 
 
 uoitcu. 
 
 Also riches joined with liberality, is power ; because it procureth friends, 
 and servants ; without liberality, not so ; because in this ease they defend 
 not ; but expose men to envy, as a prey, 
 
46 
 
 TABLE OF THE SEVERAL 
 
 /consequences from the accidents common to 
 all bodies natural ; which are quantity and 
 motion 
 
 / Consequences 
 ' from the 
 accidents of 
 bodies na- 
 tural; which 
 is called na- 
 tural PHI- 
 LOSOPHY. 
 
 SCIENCE, 
 that is, 
 knowledge 
 of conse- 
 quences ; 
 ■which is 
 called also 
 
 PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ''Consequences from the qualities 
 of bodies transient, such as 
 sometimes appear, sometimes 
 vanish. Meteorology . 
 
 Physics 
 or conse- 
 quences / 
 from^^a:- 
 lities. 
 
 ' 
 
 /Consequences from 
 
 
 the qualities of the 
 
 
 stars. 
 
 Conse- 
 
 Consequences of the 
 
 quences 
 
 qualities from liquid 
 
 from the 
 
 bodies, that fill the 
 
 qualities ( 
 
 space between the 
 
 of bodies 
 
 stars ; such as are 
 
 perma- 
 
 the air, or sub- 
 
 nent. 
 
 stances ethereal. 
 
 
 Consequences from 
 
 
 the qualities of bo- 
 
 
 dies terrestrial. 
 
 Consequences 
 from the 
 accidents of 
 politic bo- 
 dies ; which 
 is called po- 
 litics, and 
 
 civil PHI- 
 LOSOPHY. 
 
 1. Of consequences from the institution of 
 Commonwealths, to the rights and duties 
 of ihe body politic ot sorvereign. 
 
 2. Of consequences from the same, to the 
 
 duty and right of the subjects. 
 
SUBJECTS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 47 
 
 /Consequences' from (juantity, and motion indeiermhiate ; 
 which being the principles or first foundation of philosophy, 
 is called Philosophia Prima 
 
 By Figure . \ 
 
 / Consequences 
 from quan- 
 tity, and- 
 motion de- 
 termined. 
 
 Consequences 
 from motion 
 and quan- 
 tity deter- 
 mined. 
 
 By Number 
 
 \ Mathematics. 
 
 Consequences 
 from the 
 motion, and 
 quantity of 
 bodies in 
 
 ^ special. 
 
 ^Consequences > 
 from the 
 motion and 
 quantity of 
 the greater 
 parts of the 
 world, as 
 the earth 
 and stars. , 
 
 ) Cosmography. 
 
 Consequences\ 
 fromthemo- ,, , 
 tions of spe- \Mechamcs. 
 cial kinds, f Doctrme of 
 and figures weight. 
 
 , of body. I 
 
 Philoso- 
 phia 
 Prima. 
 
 'Geometr. 
 
 Arithme- 
 
 ^ TIC. 
 
 I Astro- 
 nomy. 
 Geogra- 
 phy. 
 
 Science 
 of Engi- 
 neers. 
 
 Architec- 
 ture. 
 
 Naviga- 
 
 ^ TION. 
 
 Meteoro- 
 logy. 
 
 Consequences from the light of the stars. Out of this, and1 Scio- 
 the motion of the sun, is made the scienqe of . " . . | graphy. 
 
 Consequences from the influences of tlie stars 
 
 Astrology. 
 
 / Consequences 
 from the 
 parts of the 
 earth, that 
 are without 
 
 Consequences 
 from tlie 
 qualities of 
 animals. 
 
 Consequences from the qualities of minerals, as 
 stones, metals, &c. 
 
 Consequences from the qualities of vegetables. 
 Consequences /Consequences from vision . Optics. 
 
 from the Consequences from jfl««aJf . Music. 
 
 qualities of-| 
 
 animals 
 
 general. 
 
 Consequences from the rest of 
 the senses. 
 
 ■ , Consequences from the pas- \ „ 
 I sions ol'mz.\\ . . ,| ethics. 
 
 Consequences i 
 from the I _ 
 qualities of Consequences. 
 ken in\ ^om ^/«^'^' ' 
 
 special. 
 
 Poetry. 
 
 I In magnifying, \ 
 vilifying, &c. j 
 la persiiadi7ig. Rhetoric. 
 In reasoning. Logic. 
 Kin contracting, The Science 
 of Just and 
 Unjust. 
 
48 OF MAN. 
 
 Reputation of power, is power ; because ii drraveth with it the adherence 
 of those that need protection. 
 
 So is reputation of love of a man's country, called popularity, for 
 the same reason. 
 
 Also, what quality soever maketh a man beloved, or feared of many ; or 
 the reputation of such quality, is power ; because it is a means to have 
 the assistance and service of many. 
 
 Good success is power; because it maketh reputation of wisdom, or 
 good fortune ; which makes men either fear him, or rely on him. 
 
 Affability of men already in power, is increase of power ; because it 
 gaineth love. 
 
 Reputation of prudence in the conduct of peace or war, is power ; 
 because to prudent men, we commit the government of ourselves, more 
 willingly than to others. 
 
 Nobility is power, not in all places, but only in those commonwealths 
 where it has privileges : for in such privileges, consisteth their power. 
 Eloquence is power, because it is seeming prudence. 
 Form is power ; because being a promise of good, it recommendeth men 
 to the favour of women and strangers. 
 
 The sciences are small power ; because not eminent ; and therefore, not 
 acknowledged in any man ; nor are at all, but in a few, and in them, but of 
 a few things. For science is of that nature, as none can understand it to be, 
 but such as in a good measure have attained it. 
 
 Arts of public use, as fortification, making of engines, and other instru- 
 ments of war ; because they confer to defence and victory, are power : and 
 though the true mother of them be science, namely the mathematics ; yet, 
 because they are brought into the light by the hand of the artificer, they 
 be esteemed, the midwife passing with the vulgar for the mother, as his -. 
 issue. V 
 
 f' The " value;'' or " worth'' of a man, is as of all other things, his priceV 
 jthat is to say, so much as would be given for the use of his power : and \ 
 /therefore is not absolute ; but a thing dependent on the need and judgment ] 
 ( of another. An able conductor of soldiers, is of great price in time of war I 
 \present, or imminent; but in peace not so. A learned and uncorrupt ,''^ 
 Kudge, is much worth in time of peace ; but not so much in war. And! 
 /as in other things, so in men, not the seller, but the buyer determines the \ 
 j price. For let a man, as most men do, rate themselves at the highest A 
 Rvalue they can ; y^t their true value is no more than it is esteemed by others^y 
 The manifestation of the value we set on one another, is that whiehr'is 
 commonly called honouring, and dishonouring. To value a man at a high 
 rate, is to "honour" him; at a low rate, is to " dishonour " him. But 
 high, and low, in this case, is to be understood by comparison to the rate 
 that each man setteth on himself. 
 
 The public worth of a man, which is the value set on him by the 
 commonwealth, is that which men commonly call "dignity." And this 
 value of him by the commonwealth, is understood, by offices of command, 
 judicature, public employment; or by names and titles, introduced for 
 distinction of such value. 
 
 <To pray to another, for aid of any kind, is "to honour ; " because a sign 
 we have an opinion he has power to help ; and the more difficult the aid 
 is, the more is the honour. 
 
 To obey, is to honour, because no man obeys them whom they think 
 have no power to help, or hurt them. And consequently to disobey, is to 
 "dishonour." 
 
 To give great gifts to a man. Is to honour him ; because it is buying of 
 protection, and acknowledging of power. To give little gifts, is to 
 
OF POWER, WORTH, DIGNITY, ETC. 49 
 
 dishonocr ; Ijecause it is but alms, and signifies an opinion of the need of 
 small lielps. 
 
 To be sedulous in promoting another's good, also to flatter, is to 
 honour ; as a sign we seek his protection or aid. To neglect, is to dis- 
 honour. 
 
 To give way or place to another, in any commodity, is to honour ; being 
 a confession of greater power. To arrogate, is to dishonour. 
 
 To show any sign of love, or fear of another, is to honour ; for both to 
 love, and to fear, is to value. To contemn, or less to love or fear than he 
 expects, is to dishonour ; for it is undervaluing. 
 
 To praise, magnify, or call happy, is to honour ; because nothing but 
 goodness, power, and felicity is valued. To revile, mock, or pity, is to 
 dishonour. 
 
 To speak to another with consideration, to appear before him with 
 decency, and humility, is to honour him ; as signs of fear to offend. To 
 speak to him rashly, to do anything before him obscenely, slovenly, 
 impudently, is to dishonour. 
 
 To believe, to trust, to rely on another, is to honour him ; sign of opinion 
 of his virtue and power. To distrust, or not believe, is to dishonour. 
 
 To hearken to a man's counsel, or discourse, of what kind soever, is to 
 honour ; as a sign we think him wise, or eloquent, or witty. To sleep, or 
 go forth, or talk the while, is to dishonour. v 
 
 / To do those things to another, which he takes for signs of honour, or\ 
 Ivhich the law or custom makes so, is to honour ; because in approving the 1 
 honour done by others, he acknowledgeth the power which othery 
 acknowledge. To refuse to do them, is to dishonour. 
 
 To agree with in opinion, is to honour ; as being a sign of approving his 
 judgment and wisdom. To dissent, is dishonour, and an upbraiding of 
 error; and if the dissent be in many things, of folly. 
 
 To imitate, is to honour ; for it is vehemently to approve. To imitate^ 
 one's enemy, is to dishonour. ' 
 
 To honour those another honours, is to honour him ; as a sign of 
 approbalion of his judgment. To honour his enemies, is to dishonour him. 
 
 To employ in counsel, or in actions of difficulty, is to honour ; as a sign 
 of opinion of his wisdom, or other power. To deny employment in the 
 same cases, to those that seek it, is to dishonour. 
 
 All these ways of honouring, are natural/ and as well within as without 
 commonwealths. But in commonwealths, where he, or they that have the 
 supreme authority, can make whatsoever they please to stand for signs of 
 honour, there be other honours. 
 
 A sovereign doth honour a subject, with whatsoever title, or office, 
 or employment, or action, that he himself will have taken for a sign of his 
 will to honour him. 
 
 The king of Persia honoured Mordecai, when he appointed he should be 
 conducted through the streets in the king's garment, upon one of the king's 
 horses, with a crown on his head, and a prince before him, proclaiming, 
 " Thus shall it be done to him that the king will honour." And yet 
 another king of Persia, or the same another time, to one that demanded 
 for some great service, to wear one of the king's robes, gave him leave so to 
 do ; but with this addition, that he should wear it as the king's fool ; and 
 then it was dishonour. So that of civil honour, the fountain is iri the 
 person of the commonwealth, and dependeth on the will of the sovereign ; 
 and is therefore temporary, and called " civil honour ; " such as magis- 
 tracy, offices, titles ; and in some places, coats and scutcheons painted : 
 and men honour such as have them, as having so many signs of favour in 
 the commonwealth ; which favour is power. 
 
CO OF MAN. 
 
 ' ' Honourable " is whatsoever possession, action, or quality, is an argu- 
 ment and sign of power. 
 
 And therefore to be honoured, loved, or feared of many, is honouralile ; 
 as arguments of power. To be honoured' of few or none, " dishonourable." 
 
 Dominion and victory is honourable ; because acquired by power ; and 
 servitude, for need, or fear, is dishonourable. 
 
 Good fortune, if lasting, honourable ; as a sign of the favour of God. Ill 
 fortune, and losses, dishonourable. Riches are honourable ; for they are 
 power. Poverty, dishonourable. Magnanimity, liberality, hope, courage, 
 confidence, are honourable ; for they proceed from the conscience of power. 
 Pusillanimity, parsimony, fear, diffidence, are dishonourable. 
 
 Timely resolution, or determination of what a man is to do, is honour- 
 able ; as being the contempt of small difficulties and dangers. And irreso- 
 lution, dishonourable ; as a sign of.too much valuing of little impediments, 
 and little advantages : for when a man has weighed things as long as the 
 time permits, and resolves not, the difference of weight is but little ; and 
 therefore if he resolve not, he overvalues little things, which is 
 pusillanimity, 
 
 AU actions and speeches that proceed, or seem to proceed, from much 
 experience, science, discretion, or wit, are honourable ; for all these are 
 powers. Actions, or words that proceed from error, ignorance, or folly, 
 dishonourable. 
 
 Gravity, as far forth as it seems to proceed from a mind employed on 
 something else, is honourable ; because employment is a sign of power. 
 But if it seem to proceed from a purpose to appear grave, it is dishonour- 
 able. For the gravity of the former, is like the steadiness of a ship 
 laden with merchandize ; but of the latter, like the steadiness of a ship 
 ballasted with sand, and other trash. 
 
 To be conspicuous, that is to say, to be known, for wealth, office, gi-eat 
 actions, or any eminent good, is honourable ; as a sign of the power for 
 which he is conspicuous. On the contrary, obscurity is dishonourable. 
 
 To be descended from conspicuous parents, is honourable ; because they 
 the more easily attain the aids and friends of their ancestors. On the 
 contrary, to be descended from obscure parentage, is dishonourable. 
 
 Actions proceeding from equity, joined with loss, are honourable; as 
 signs of magnanimity: for magnanimity is a sign of power. On the con- 
 trary, craft, shifting, neglect of equity, is dishonourable. 
 
 Covetousness of great riches, and ambition of great honours, are honour- 
 a.ble ; as signs of power to obtain them. Covetousness, and ambition, of 
 little gains or preferments, is dishonourable. 
 
 Nor does it alter the case of honour, whether an action, so it be great and 
 difficult, and consequently a sign of much power, be just or unjust : for 
 honour consisteth only in the opinion of power. Therefore the ancient 
 heathen did not think they dishonoured, but greatly honoured the gods, when 
 they introduced them in their poems, committing rapes, thefts, and other great 
 but unjust, or unclean acts : insomuch as nothing is so much celebrated in 
 Jupiter, as his adulteries ; nor in Mercury, as his frauds and thefts : of whose 
 praises, in a hymn of Homer, the greatest is this, that being born in the 
 morning, he had invented music at noon, and before night, stolen away the 
 cattle of Apollo from his herdsmen. 
 
 Also amongst men, till there were constituted great commonwealths, it 
 was thought no dishonour to be a pirate, or a highway thief ; but rather 
 a lawful trade, not only amongst the Greeks, but also amongst all other 
 nations, as is manifeiit by the histories of ancient time. And at this day, 
 in this part of the world, private duels are- and always will be honourable 
 though unlawful, till such time as there shall be honour ordained for them 
 
OF POWER, WORTH, DIGNITY, ETC. 51 
 
 that refuse, and ignominy for them that make the challenge. For duels 
 also are many times effects of courage ; and the ground of courage is always 
 strength or skill, which are power ; though for the most part they be effects 
 of rash speaking, and of the fear of dishohour, in one or both the com- 
 batants ; who engaged by rashness, are driven into the lists to avoid disgrace. 
 
 Scutcheons, and coats of arras hereditary, where they have any eminent 
 privileges, are honourable ; otherwise not : for their power consisteth either 
 in such privileges, or in riches, or some such thing as is equally honoured 
 in other men. This kind of honour, conmionly called gentry, hath been 
 derived from the ancient Germans. For there never was any such thing 
 known, where the German customs were unknown. Nor is it now any- 
 where in use, where the Germans have not inhabited. The ancient Greek 
 commanders, when they went to war, had their shields painted with 
 such devices as they pleased ; insomuch that an unpainted buckler was 
 a sign of poverty, and of a common soldier; but they transmitted not 
 the inheritance of them. The Romans transmitted the marks of their 
 families : but they were the images, not the devices of their ancestors. 
 Amongst the people of Asia, Africa, and America, there is not, nor was 
 ever, any such thing. The Germans only had that custom ; from whom it 
 has been derived into England, France, Spain, and Italy, when in great 
 numbers they either aided the Romans, or made their own conquests in 
 these western parts of the world. 
 
 For Germany, being anciently, as all other countries in their beginnings, " 
 divided amongst an infinite number of little lords, or masters of families, 
 that continually had wars one with another; those masters, or lords, princi- 
 pally to the end they might, when they were covered with arms, be known 
 by their followers ; and partly for ornament, both painted their armour, or 
 their scutcheon, or coat, with the picture of some beast, or other thing, 
 and also put some eminent and visible mark upon the crest of their helmets. 
 And this ornament both of the arms, and crest, descended by inheritance 
 to their children ; to the eldest pure, and to the rest with some note of 
 diversity, such as the old master, tlmt is to say in Dutch, the "Here-alt" 
 thought fit. But when many such families, joined together, made a greater 
 monarchy, this duty of the Herealt, to distinguish scutcheons, was made a 
 private office apart. And the issue of these lords is the great and ancient 
 gentry ; which for the most part bear living creatures, noted for courage 
 and rapine ; or castles, battlements, belts, weapons, bars, palisadoes, and 
 other notes of war ; nothing being then in honour but virtue miUtary. 
 Afterward^, not only kings, but popular commonwealths, gave divers 
 manners of scutcheons, to such as went forth to the war, or returned from 
 it, for encouragement, or recompense to their service. All whichj by an 
 observing reader, may be found in such ancient histories, Greek and Latin, 
 as make mention of the German nation and manners in their times. 
 
 Titles of "honour," such as are duke, count, marquis, and baron, are 
 honourable ; as signifying the value set upon them by the sovereign power 
 of the commonwealth : which titles, were in old time titles of office and 
 command, derived some from the Romans, some from the Germans and 
 French : dukes, in Latin " duces," being generals in war : counts, " comites,' 
 such as bear the general company out of friendship, and were left to govern 
 and defend places conquered and pacified : marquises, " marchiones," were 
 counts that governed the marches, or bounds of the empire. Which titles 
 of duke, count, and marquis, came into the empire about the time of Con- 
 stantine the Great, from the customs of the German " militia." But baron 
 seems to have been a title of the Gauls, and signifies a great man ; such as 
 were the king's or prince's men, whom they employed in war about their 
 persons ; and seems to be derived from " vir," to " ber," and " bar," that 
 
52 
 
 OF MAN. 
 
 signified the same in the language of the Gauls, that " vir " in Latin ; and 
 thence to " bero," and " baro," so that such men were called " berones," 
 and after "baiones;" and, in Spanish, "varones." But he that would 
 know more particularly the original of titles of honour, may find it, as I 
 have done this, in Mr. Selden's most excellent treatise of that subject. In 
 process of time these offices of honour, by occasion of trouble, and for 
 reasons of good and peaceable government, were turned into mere titles ; 
 serving for the most part, to distinguish the precedence, place, and order of 
 subjects in the commonwealth : and men were made dukes, raunts, mar- 
 quises, and barons of places, wherein they had neither possession nor com- 
 mand : and other titles also were devised to the same end. 
 
 " Worthiness," is a thing different from the worth or value of a man ; 
 and also from his merit, or desert, and consisteth in a particular power, or 
 ability for that, whereof he is said to be worthy : which particular ability 
 is usually named "fitness," or "aptitude." 
 
 For he is worthiest to be a commander, to be a judge, or to have 
 nny other charge, that is best fitted, with the qualities required to the well 
 discharging of it ; and worthiest of riches, that has the qualities most re- 
 quisite for the well using of them : any of which qualities being absent, one 
 may nevertheless be a worthy man, and valua>-le for something else. Again, 
 a man may be worthy of riches, office, and employment, and nevertheless 
 can plead no right to have it before another ; and therefore cannot be said 
 to merit or deserve it. For merit presupposeth a right, and that the thing 
 deserved is due by promise : of which I shall say more hereafter, when I 
 shall speak of contracts. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Of the Difference of Manners. 
 
 By manners I mean not here decency of behaviour ; as how one should 
 salute another, or how a man should wash his mouth, or pick his teeth 
 before company, and such other points of the " small morals ; " but those 
 qualities of mankind that concern their living together in peace and unity. 
 To which end we are to consider that the felicity of this life consisteth not 
 in the repose of a mind satisfied. For there is no such finis ultimus, 
 utmost aim, nor summum bonum, greatest good, as is spoken of in the 
 books of the old moral philosophers. Nor can a man any more live, whose 
 desires are at an end, than he whose senses and imaginations are at a stand. 
 Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one object to another, 
 the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter. The cause 
 whereof is that the object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only, and 
 for one instant of time, but to assure for ever the way of his future desire. 
 And therefore the voluntary actions and inclinations of all men, tend not 
 only to the procuring, but also to the assuring of a contented life ; and 
 differ only in the way which ariseth partly from the diversity of passions in 
 divers men ; and partly from the difference of the knowledge or opinion 
 each one has of the causes which produce the effect desired. 
 
 So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, 
 a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in 
 death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more 
 intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be con- 
 tent with a moderate power ; but because he cannot assure the power ^nd 
 
OF MANNERS. 53 
 
 means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more. 
 And from hence it is that kings, whose power is greatest, turn their 
 endeavours to the assuring it at home by laws, or abroad by wars ; and when 
 that is done, there succeedeth a new desire ; in some, of fame from new 
 conquest ; in others, of ease and sensual pleasure ; in others, of admiration, 
 or being flattered for excellence in some art, or other ability of the mind- 
 
 Competition of riches, honour, command, or other power, inclineth to^ 
 contention, enmity, and war ; because the way of one competitor, to the 
 attaining of his desire, is to kill, subdue, supplant, or repel the otlier. 
 Particularly, competition of praise, inclineth to a reverence of antiquity. / 
 For men contend with the living, not with the dead ; to these ascribing / 
 more than due, that they may obscure the glory of the other. 
 
 Desire of ease, and sensual delight, disposeth men to obey a common 
 power, because by such desires a man doth abandon the protection that 
 might be hoped for from his own industry and labour. Fear of death, and 
 wounds, disposeth to the same, and for the same reason. On the contrary, 
 needy men, and hardy, not contented with their present condition, as also 
 all men that are ambitious of military command, are inclined to continue 
 the causes of war ; and to stir up trouble and sedition, for there is no 
 honour military but by war, nor any such hope to mend an ill game, as 
 by causing a new shuffle. 
 
 Desire of knowledge, and arts of peace, inclineth men to obey a common 
 power : for such desire, containeth a desire of leisure ; and consequently 
 protection from some other power than their own. 
 
 Desire of praise, disposeth to laudable actions, such as please them whose 
 judgment , they value ; for of those men whom we contemn, we contemn 
 also the praises. Desire of fame after death does the same. And though 
 after death, there be no sense of the praise given us on earth, as being joys, 
 that are either swallowed up in the unspeakable joys of Heaven, or 
 extinguished in the extreme torments of hell : yet is not such fame vain ; 
 because men have a present delight therein, from the foresight of it, and of 
 the benefit that may redound thereby to their posterity : which though they 
 now see not, yet they imagine ; and anything that is pleasure to the sense, 
 the same also is pleasure in the imagination. \ 
 
 To have received from one, to whom we think ourselves equal, greater 
 benefits than there is hope to requite, disposetli to counterfeit love; but 
 really secret hatred ; and puts a man into the estate of a desperate debtor, 
 that in declining the sight of his creditor, tacitly wishes him there, where he 
 might never see him more. For benefits oblige, and obligation is thraldom ; 
 and unrequitable obligation perpetual thraldom ; whicli is to one's equal, 
 hateful. But to have received benefits from one, whom we acknowledge 
 for superior, inclines to love ; because the obligation is no new depression : 
 and cheerful acceptation, which men call "gratitude," is such an honour 
 done to the obliger, as is taken generally for retribution. Also to receive 
 benefits, though from an equal, or inferior, as long as there is hope of re- 
 quital, disposeth to love : for in the intention of the receiver, the obligation 
 is of aid and service mutual ; from whence proceedelh an emulation of who 
 shall exceed in benefiting ; the most noble and profitable contention 
 possible ; wherein the victor is pleased with his victory, and the other 
 revenged by confessing it. 
 
 To have done more hurt to a man, than he can or is willing to expiate, 
 inclineth the doer to hate the sufferer. For he must expect revenge, or for- 
 giveness ; both which are hateful. 
 
 Fear of oppression, disposeth a. man to anticipate, or to seek aid by 
 society : for there is no other way by which 51 man can secure his life and 
 liberty. 
 
54 OF MAN. 
 
 Men that distrust their own subtlety, are, in tumult and sedition, better 
 disposed for victory, than they that suppose themselves wise, or crafty. For 
 these love to consult, the other, fearing to be circumvented, to strike first. 
 And in sedition, men being alvirays in the precincts of battle, to hold 
 together, and use all advantages of force, is a better stratagem, than any 
 that can proceed from subtlety of wit. 
 
 Vain-glorious men, such as without being conscious to themselves of 
 great sufficiency, delight in supposing themselves gallant men, are inclined 
 only to ostentation ; but not to attempt : because when danger or difficulty 
 appears, they look for nothing but to have their insufficiency discovered. 
 
 Vain-glorious men, such as estimate their sufficiency by tlie flattery of 
 other men, or the fortune of some precedent action, without assured ground 
 of hope from the true knowledge of themselves, are inclined to rash 
 engaging; and in the approacli of danger, or difficulty, to retire if they 
 can : because not seeing the way of safety, they will rather hazard Iheir 
 honour, which may be salved with an excuse ; than their lives, for which 
 no salve is sufficient. 
 
 Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdom in matter of 
 government, are disposed to ambition. Because without public employ- 
 ment in council or magistracy, the honour of their wisdom is lost. And 
 therefore eloquent speakers are inclined to ambition ; for eloquence seemeth 
 wisdom, both to themselves and others. 
 
 Pusillanimity disposeth men to irresolution, and consequently to lose the 
 occasions, and fittest opportunities of action. For after men have been in 
 deliberation till the time of action approach, if it be not then manifest what 
 is best to be done, it is a sign, the difference of motives, the one way and 
 the other, are not great : therefore not to resolve then, is to lose the 
 occasion by weighing of trifles ; which is pusillanimity. 
 
 Frugality, though in poor men a virtue, maketh a man unapt to achieve 
 such actions as require the strength of many men at once : for it weakeneth 
 their endeavour, which is to be nourished and kept in vigour by reward. 
 
 Eloquence, with flattery, disposeth men to confide in them that have it ; 
 because the former is seeming wisdom, the latter seeming kindness. Add 
 to them military reputation, and it disposeth men to adhere, and subject 
 themselves to those men that have them- The two former having given 
 them caution against danger from him ; the latter gives them caution 
 against danger from others. 
 
 Want of science, that is, ignorance of causes, disposeth, or rather 
 constraineth a man to rely on the advice and authority of others. For all 
 men whom the truth concerns, if they rely not on their own, must rely on 
 the opinion of some other, whom they think wiser than themselves, and see 
 not why he should deceive them. 
 
 Ignorance of the signification of words, which is want of understanding, 
 disposeth men to take on trust, not only the truth they know not ; but also 
 the errors ; and which is more, the nonsense of them they trust : for neither 
 error nor nonsense, can without a perfect understanding of words, be 
 detected. 
 
 From the same it proceedeth, that men give different names to one and 
 the same thing, from the difierence of their own passions : as they that 
 approve a private opinion, call it opinion ; but they that mislike it, heresy : 
 and yet heresy signifies no more than private opinion ; but has only a 
 greater tincture of choler. 
 
 From the same also it proceedeth, that men cannot distinguish, without 
 study and great understanding, between one action of many men, and many 
 actions of one multitude ; as for example, between one aciion of all the 
 senators of Rome in killing Cataline, and the many actions of a number of 
 
OF MANNERS. 55 
 
 senators in killing Ciesar; and therefore are disposed to take for the acciou 
 of tiie people, that which is a multitude of actions done by a multitude of 
 men, led perhaps by the persuasion of one. 
 
 Ignorance of the causes, and original constitution of right, equity, law, 
 and justice, disposeth a man to make custom and example the rule of his 
 actions; in such manner, as to think that unjust which it hath been the 
 custom to punish ; and that just, of the impunity and approbation whereof 
 they can produce an example, or, as the lawyers which only use this false 
 measure of justice barbarously call it, a precedent ; like little children, that 
 have no other rule of good and evil manners, but the correction they receive 
 from their parents and masters ; save that children are constant to their 
 rule, whereas, men are not so ; because grown old, and stubborn, they . 
 appeayro!]i..£ijStoitt4«jea*Gn,-and-from reason ttrcustom, as it serves their I— 
 turn ; receding from custom when their interest requires it, and setting • 
 themselves against reason, as oft as reason is against them : which is the 
 cause, that the doctrine of right and wrong is perpetually disputed, both 
 by the pen and the sword : whereas the doctrine of lines, and figures, is not 
 so ; because men care not, in that subject, what be truth, as a thing that 
 crosses no man's ambition, profit or lust. For I doubt not, but if it had 
 bean a thing contrary to any man's right of dominion, or to the interest of 
 men that have dominion, " that the three angles of a triangle, should be 
 equal to two angles of a square ; " that doctrine should have been, if not 
 disputed, yet by the burning of all books of geometry, suppressed, as far as 
 he whom it concerned was able. 
 
 Iglioraiicej3f_remote causes, _disppsetli men ta_attribute all- events to 
 the .causes immediate, and instrumental ; for these are all the causes 
 they perceive". "KnS. hence it comes to pass, that in all places, men 
 that are grieved with payments to the public, discharge their anger upon 
 the publicans, that is to say, farmers, collectors, and other officers of the 
 public revenue ; and adhere to such as find fault with the public govern- 
 ment ; and thereby, when they have engaged themselves beyond hope of 
 justification, fall also upon the "supreme authority, for fear of punishment, or 
 shame of receiving pardon. 
 
 Ignorance of natural causes, disposeth a man to credulity, so as to be- 
 lieve many times impossibilities : for such know nothing to the contrary, 
 but that they may be true ; being unable to detect the impossibility. And 
 c redulit y, because men like to be hearkened unto in company, disgoseth 
 tliem-ta_lying : so that ignorance itself without malice, is able to inake a 
 man both to believe lies, and tell them ; and sometimes also to invent 
 them. 
 
 Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to inquire into the causes of 
 things : because the knowledge of them maketh men the better able to 
 order the present to their best advantage. 
 
 Curiosity, or love of the knowledge of causes, draws a man from the con- 
 sideration of the effect, to seek the cause ; and again, the cause of that cause ; 
 till of necessity he must come to this thought at last, that there is some cause, 
 whereof there is no former cause, but is eternal ; which is it men call God. 
 So that it is impossible to make any profound inquiry into natural causes, with- 
 out being inclined thereby to believe there is one God eternal ; though they 
 cannot have any idea of Him in their mind, answerable to His nature. Fofas 
 a man that is bom blind, hearing men talk of warming themselves by the fire, 
 and being brought to warm himself by the same, may easily conceive, and 
 assure himself, there is somewhat there, which men call " fire," and is the 
 cause of the heat he feels ; but cannot imagine what it is like ; nor have an 
 idea of it in his mind, such as they have that see it : so also by the visible 
 things in this world, and their admirable order, a man may conceive there is a 
 
56 OF MAN. 
 
 cause of them, which men call God ; and yet not have an idea or image oi 
 Him in his mind. 
 
 And they that make little or no inquiry into the natural causes of things, 
 yet from the fear that proceeds from the ignorance itself, of what it is that 
 hath the power to do them much good or harm, are inclined to suppose, 
 and feign unto themselves, several kinds of powers invisible ; and to stand 
 in awe of their own imaginations ; and in time of distress to invoke them ; 
 as also in the time of an expected good success, to give them thanks ; mak- 
 ing the creatures of their own fancy, their gods. By which means it hath 
 come to pass, that from the innumerable variety of fancy, men have created 
 in the world innumerable sorts of gods. And this fear of things invisible, 
 is the natural seed of that, which every one in himself calleth religion ; and 
 in them that worship, or fear that power otherwise than they do, super- 
 stition. 
 
 And this seed of religion, having been observed by many ; some of those 
 that have observed it, have been inclined thereby to nourish, dress, and 
 form it into laws ; aijd Jp_add to it of their_own,iiiy-ention, any opinion of 
 the causes of future events, by which they thought they should be best able 
 to govern others, and m&ke unto themselves^ the greatest use o£-their 
 powers. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Of Religion. 
 
 Seeing there are no signs, nor fruit of "religion," but in man only ; there 
 is no cause tadoubt, but that the seed of " religion " is also only in man ; and 
 consisteth in some peculiar quality, or at least in some eminent degree 
 thereof, not to be found in any other living creatures. 
 
 And first, it is peculiar to the nature of man, to be inquisitive into the 
 causes of the events they see, some more, some less ; but all men so much, 
 as to be curious in the search of the causes of their own good and evil 
 fortune. 
 
 Secondly, upon the sight of anything that hath a beginning, to think also 
 it- had a cjuserwhich determined the same to begin, then when it did, 
 rather than sooner or later. 
 
 Thirdly, whereas there is no other felicity of beasts, but the enjoying of 
 their quoiidian food, ease, and lusts ; as having little or no foresight of the 
 time to come, for want of observation, and memory of the order, conse- 
 quence, and dependence of the things they see ; man observeth how one 
 event hatli been produced by another ; and remembereth in them antece- 
 dence and consequence ; and when he cannot assure himself of the true 
 causes of things, (for the causes of good and evil fortune for the most part 
 are invisible,) he supposes causes of them, either such as his own fancy 
 suggesteth ; or trusteth the authority of other men, such as he thinks to be 
 his friends, and wiser than himself. 
 
 The two first make anxiety. For being assured that there be causes of 
 all things that have arrived hitherto, or shall arrive hereafter, it is im- 
 possible for a man, who continually endeavoureth to secure himself against 
 the evil he fears, and procure the good he desireth, not to be in a perpetual 
 solicitude of the time to come ; so that every man, especially those that are 
 over-provident, are in a state like to that of Prometheus. For as 
 Prometheus, which, interpreted, is "the prudent man," was bound to the 
 hill Caucasus, a place of large prospect, where an eagle feeding on his liver, 
 
OF RELIGION, 
 
 57 
 
 devoured in the day, as much as was repaired in the night : so that man, 
 which looks too far before him in the care of future time, hath liis heart all 
 the day long gnawed on by fear of death, poverty, or other calamity, and 
 has no repose, nor pause of his anxiety, but in sleep. 
 
 This perpetual fear, always accompanying mankind in the ignorance of 
 causes, as it were in the dark, must needs have for object something. And 
 therefore when there is nothing to be seen, there is nothing to accuse, either 
 of their good or evil fortune, but some " power," or agent " invisible," in 
 which sense perhaps it was, that some of the old poets said, that the gods 
 were at first created by human fear : which spoken of the gods, that is to 
 say, of the many gods of the Gentiles, is very true. But the acknowledging 
 of one God, eternal, infinite, and omnipotent, may more easily be derived, 
 from the desire men have to know the causes of natural bodies, and their 
 several virtues and operations, than from the fear of what was to befall 
 them in time to come. For he that from any effect he seeth come to pass, 
 should reason to the next and immediate cause thereof, and from thence to 
 the cause of that cause, and plunge himself profoundly in the pursuit of 
 causes, shall at last come to this, that there must be, as even the heathen 
 philosophers confessed, one first mover ; that is, a first and an eternal 
 cause of all things, which is that which men mean by the name of God, and 
 all this without thought of their fortune ; the solicitude whereof both in- 
 clines to fear, and hinders them from the search of the causes of other things, 
 and thereby gives occasion of feigning of as many gods as there be men that 
 feign them. 
 
 And for the matter or substance of the invisible agents so fancied, they 
 could not by natural cogitation fall upon any other conceit, but that it was 
 the same with that of the soul of man ; and that the soul of man was of 
 the same substance with that which appeareth in a dream to one that 
 sleepeth ; or in a looking-glass, to one that is awake ; which, men not 
 knowing that such apparitions are nothing else'but creatures of the fancy, 
 think to be real and external substances, and therefore call them ghosts : as 
 the Latins called them imagines and umbrcs, and thought them spirits, that 
 is, thin aerial bodies, and those invisible agents which they feared to be like 
 them, save that they appear and vanish when they please." But the 
 opinion that such spirits were incorporeal, or immaterial, could never enter 
 into the mind of any man by nature; because, though men may put 
 together words of contradictory signification, as "spirit," and "incor- 
 poreal," yet they can never have the imagination of anything answering to 
 them : and therefore, men that by their own meditation arrive to the 
 acknowledgment ot one infinite, omnipotent, and eternal God, chose 
 rather to confess He is incomprehensible, and above their understanding, 
 than to define His nature by " spirit incorporeal, " and then confess their 
 definition to be imintelligible ; or, if they give Him such a title, it is not 
 " dogmatically " with intention to make the divine nature understood ; but 
 " piously," to honour him with attributes, of significations as remote as 
 they can from the grossness of bodies visible. 
 
 Then for the way by which they think these invisible agents wrought 
 their effects ; that is to say, what immediate causes they us^, in bringing 
 things to pass, men that know not what it is that we call 'fcausing," that 
 is, almost all men, have no other rule to guess by, but by observing and 
 remembering what they have seen to precede the like effect at some other 
 time, or times before, without seeing between the antecedent and subsequent 
 event, any dependence or connection at all : and therefore from the"Iike 
 things past, -they jexpect th e ilk e tbings^-to come ; and hope for good or evil 
 luck, superstitiously, ffom things that have no part at all in the causing of 
 it: as the Athenians did for their war at Lepanto, demand another 
 
58 . • OF MAN. 
 
 Phomiio; tlie Pompeian faction for their war in Africa, another Scipio ; 
 and others have done in divers other occasions since. In like manner they 
 attribute their fortune to a stander-by, to a lucky or unlucky place, to words 
 spoken, especially if the name of God be amongst them ; as charming and 
 conjuring, the-liturgy of witches ; inasmuch as to believe, they have power 
 to turn a stone into bread, bread into a man, or anything into anything. 
 
 Thirdly, for the worship which naturally men exhibit to powers invisible, 
 it can be no other, but such exjjre^ions of their reverence, as they would 
 use-to-wards men ; gifts, petitionsTSiariEs, submission of body, considerate 
 addresses, sober behaviour, premeditated words, swearing, that is, assuring 
 one another of their promises, by invoking them. Beyond that reason 
 suggesteth nothing ; but leaves them either to rest there ; or for further 
 ceremonies, to rely on those they believe to be wiser than themselves. 
 
 Lastly, concerning how these invisible powers declare to men the things 
 which shall hereafter come to pass, especially concerning their good or evil 
 fortune in general, or good or ill success in any particular undertaking, men 
 are naturally at a stand ; save that using to conjecture of the time to come, 
 by the time past, they are very apt, not only to take casual things, after one 
 or two encounters, for prognostics of the like encounter ever after, but also 
 to believe the like prognostics frpm other men, of whom they have once 
 conceived a good opinion. 
 
 And in these four things, opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, 
 devotion towards what men fear, and taking of things casual for prognos- 
 tics, consisteth the natural seed of "religion;" which by reason of the 
 different fancies, judgments, and passions of several men, hath grown up 
 into ceremonies so different, that those which are used by one man, are for 
 the most part ridiculous to another. 
 
 For these seeds have received culture from two sorts of men. One sort 
 have been they that have nounshed ahd ordered them, according to their- 
 own invention. The other have done it, by God's commandment and 
 direction : but both sorts have done it, with a purpose to make those men 
 that relied on them, the more apt to obedience, laws, peace, charity, and civil 
 society. So that the religion of the former sort is a part of human politicsj 
 and teacheth part of the duty which earthly kings require of their subjects. 
 And the religion of the latter sort is divine politics j and containeth 
 precepts to those that have yielded themselves subjects in the kingdom of 
 God. Of the former sort were all the founders of commonwealths, and the 
 lawgivers of the Gentiles : of the latter sort, were Abraham, Moses, and 
 our blessed Saviour ; by whom have been derived unto us the laws of the 
 kingdom of God. 
 
 And for thaf part of religion, which consisteth in opinions concerning 
 the nature of powers invisible, there is almost nothing that has a name, 
 that has not been esteemed amOngst the Gentiles, in one place or another, 
 a god, or devil ; or by their poets feigned to be inanimated, inhabited, or 
 possessed by some spirit or other. 
 
 The unformed matter of the world, was a god by the name of Chaos. 
 
 The heaven, the ocean, the planets, the fire, the earth, the winds, were 
 so many gods. 
 
 Men, women, a bird, a crocodile, a calf, a dog, a snake, an onion, a 
 leek, were deified. Besides that, they filled almost all places with spirits 
 called " demons ; " the plains, with Pan and Panises, or Satyrs; the woods, 
 with Fauns, and Nymphs ; the sea, with Tritons, and other Nymphs ; 
 every river and fountain, with a ghost of his name, and with Nymphs ; 
 eveiy house with its ' ' Lares, " or familiars ; every man with his " Genius ; " 
 hell with ghosts, and spiritual officers, as Charon, Cerberus, and the Furies ; 
 and in the night-time, all places with "larvae," "lemures," ghosts of men 
 
OF RELIGION. 59 
 
 deceased, and a whole kingdom of fairies and bugbeafs. They have also 
 ascribed divinity, and built temples to mere accidents and qualities ; such 
 as are time, night, day, peace, concord, love, contention, virtue, honour, 
 health, rust, fever, and the like ; vrhich when they prayed for, or against, 
 they prayed to, as if there were ghosts of those name? hanging over their 
 heads, and letting fall, or withholding that good or evil, for or against 
 which they prayed. They invoked also their own wit, by the name of 
 Muses ; their own ignorance, by the name of Fortune ; their own lusts by 
 the name of Cupid ; their own rage, by the name of Furies ; their own 
 privy members, by the name of Priapus ; and attributed their pollutions to 
 Incubi and Succubse : insomuch as there was nothing, which a poet could 
 introduce as a person in his poem, which they did not make either a " god," 
 or a "devil." 
 
 Tlie same authors of the religion of the Gentiles, observing the second 
 ground for religion, which is men's ignorance of causes ; and thereby their 
 aptness to attribute their fortune to causes, on which there was no depend- 
 ence at all apparent, took occasion to obtrude on their ignorance, instead of 
 second causes, a kind of second and ministerial gods ; ascribing the cause 
 of fecundity to Venus ; the cause of arts, to Apollo ; of subtlety and craft, 
 to Mercury ; of tempests and storms, to ^olus ; and of other effects, to other 
 gods ; insomuch as there was amongst the heathen almost as great variety 
 of gods as of business. 
 
 And to the worship, which naturally men conceived fit to be used towards 
 - their gods, namely, oblations, prayers, thanks, and the rest formerly named ; 
 the same legislators of the Gentiles have added their images, both in pic- 
 ture and sculpture ; that the more ignorant sort, that is to say, the most 
 part or generality of the people, thinking the gods for whose representation 
 they were made, were really included, and as it were housed within them, 
 might so much the more stand in fear of them : and endowed them with 
 lands, and houses, and officers, and revenues, set apart from all other 
 human uses j that is, consecrated, and made holy to those their idols ; as 
 caverns, groves, woods, mountains, and whole islands ; and have attributed 
 to them, not only the shapes, some of men, some of beasts, some of monsters ; 
 but also the faculties and passions of men and beasts : as sense, speech, 
 sex, lust, generation, and this not only by mixing one with another, to 
 propagate the kind of gods, but also by mixing with men and women, to 
 beget mongrel gods, and but inmates of heaven, as Bacchus, Hercules, and 
 others ; besides anger, revenge, and other passions, of living creatures, and 
 the actions proceeding from them, as fraud, thefl, adultei-y, sodomy, and any 
 vice that may be taken for an effect of power, or a cause of pleasure ; and 
 all such vices, as amongst men are taken to be against law, rather than 
 against honour. 
 
 Lastly, to the prognostics of time to come; which are naturally but con- 
 jectures upon experience of time past; and supematurally, divine re- 
 velation ; the same authors of the religion of the Gentiles, partly upon pre - 
 tended experience, partly upon pretended revelation, have added innu- 
 merable other superstitious ways of divination ; and made men believe they 
 should find their fortunes, sometimes in the ambiguous or senseless answers 
 of the priests at Delphi, Delos, Ammon, and other famous oracles ; which 
 answers were made ambiguous by design, to own the event both ways ; or 
 absurd, by the intoxicating vapour of the place, which is very frequent in 
 sulphurous caverns : sometimes in the leaves of the Sybils ; of whose pro- 
 phecies, like those perhaps of Nostradamus (for the fragments now extant 
 seem to be the invention of later times)^ there were some books in reputa- 
 tion in the time of the Roman Republic : sometimes in the insignificant 
 speeches of madmen, supposed to be possessed with a divine spirit, which 
 
6o OF MAN. 
 
 possession they called .enthusiasm ; and these kinds of foretelling evfinfs wefe 
 accounted theomancy, or prophecy : sometimes in the aspect of the stars at 
 their nativity ; which was called horoscopy, and esteemed a part of 
 judiciary astrology : sometimes in their own hopes and fears, called 
 ihumomancy, or presage : sometimes in the prediction of witches, that pre- 
 tended conference with the dead : which is called necromancy, conjuring, and 
 witchcraft ; and is but juggling and confederate knavery : somelimes m the 
 casual flight or feeding of birds ; called augury : sometimes in the entrails 
 of a sacrificed beast ; which was " aruspicina : " sometimes in dreams ; 
 sometimes in croaking of ravens, or chattering of birds ; sometimes in the 
 lineaments of the face ; which was called metoposcopy ; or by palmistry in 
 the lines of the hand; in casual words, called "omina:" sometimes in 
 monsters, or unusual accidents ; as eclipses, comets, rare meteors, earth- 
 quakes, inundations, uncouth births, and the like, which they called " por- 
 tenta," and " ostenta," because they thought them to portend or foreshow 
 some great calamity to come ; sometimes, in mere lottery, as cross and pile, 
 counting holes in a sieve ; dipping of verses in Homer, and Virgil ; and in- 
 numerable other such vain conceits. So easy are men to be drawn to 
 believe anything, from such men as have gotten credit with them ; and can 
 with gentleness and dexterity take hold of their fear and ignorance. 
 
 And therefore the first founders and legislators of commonwealths 
 among the Gentiles, whose ends were only to keep the people in obedience 
 and peace, have in all places taken care ; first, to imprint in their minds a 
 belief, that those precepts which they gave concerning religion, might not 
 be thought to proceed from their own device, but from the dictates of some 
 god, or other spirit ; or else that they themselves were of a higher nature 
 than mere mortals, that their laws might the more easily be received : so 
 Numa Pompilius pretended to receive the ceremonies he instituted amongst 
 the Romans, from the nymph Egeria : and the first king and founder of 
 the kingdom of Peru, pretended himself and his wife to be the children of 
 the Sun ; and Mahomet, to set up his new religion, pretended to have con- 
 ferences with the Holy Ghost, in form of a dove. Secondly, they have had 
 a care to make it believed, that the same things were displeasing to the 
 gods which were forbidden by the laws. Thirdly, to prescribe ceremtmies, 
 supplications, sacrifices, and festivals, by which they were to believe, the 
 anger of the gods might be appeased ; and that ill success in war, great con- 
 tagions of sickness, earthquakes, and each man's private misery, came from 
 the anger of the, gods, and their anger from the neglect of their worship, 
 dr the forgetting or mistaking some point of the ceremonies required. 
 And though amongst the ancient Romans, men were not forbidden to deny 
 that which in the poets is written of the pains and pleasures after this life : 
 which divers of great authority and gravity in that state have in their 
 harangues openly derided ; yet that belief was always more cherished than 
 the contrary. 
 
 And by these, and such other institutions, they obtained in order to their 
 end, which was the peace of the commonwealth, that the common people 
 in their misfortunes, laying the fault on neglect, or error in their ceremonies, 
 or on their own disobedience to the laws, were the less aut to mutiny 
 against their governors ; and being entertained with the pomp'and pastime 
 of festivals, and public games, made in honour of the gods, needed nothing 
 else but bread to keep them from discontent, murmuring, and commo- 
 tion against the state. And therefore the Romans, that had conquered the 
 greatest part of the then known world, made no scruple of tolerating any 
 religion whatsoever in the city of Rome itself ; unless it had something in 
 it that could not consist with their civil government ; nor do we read that 
 any religion was there forbidden, but that of the Jews ; who, being the 
 
OP RELIGION. 6i 
 
 peculiar kingdom of God, thought it unlawful to acknowledge subjection 
 to any mortal king or state whatsoever. And thus you see how the religion 
 of the Gentiles was part of their policy. 
 
 But where God Himself, by supernatural revelation, planted religion; 
 there He also made to Himself a peculiar kingdom ; and gave laws not only 
 of behaviour towards Himself, but also towards one another ; and thereby 
 in the kingdom of God, the policy, and laws civil, are a part of religion ; 
 and therefore the distinction of temporal and spiritual domination, hath 
 there no place. It is true that God is king of all the earth ; yet may He be 
 king of a peculiar and chosen nation. For there is no more incongruity 
 therein, than that he that hath the general command of the whole army, 
 should have withal a peculiar regiment, or company of his own. God is 
 king of all the eailh by His power ; but of His chosen people He is king by 
 covenant. But to speak more largely of the kingdom of God, both by 
 nature and covenant, I have in the following discourse assigned another 
 place (chapter xxxv.). 
 
 From the propagation of religion, it is not hard to understand the causes 
 of the resolution of the same into its first see.ds, or principles ; which are 
 only an opinion of a deity, and powers invisible and supernatural ; that 
 can never be so abolished out of human nature, but that new religions may 
 again be made to spring out of them, by the culture of such men as for 
 such purpose are in reputation. 
 
 f For seeing all formed religion, is founded at first upon the faith which 
 iTmultitude hath in some one person, whom they believe not only to be a 
 wise man, and to labour to procure their happiness, but also to be a holy 
 man, to whom God Himself vouchsafeth to declare His wiU supernaturally^ 
 it followeth necessarily, when they that have the government of religion, 
 shall come to have either the wisdom of those men, their sincerity, or their 
 love suspected ; or when they shall be unable to show any probable token 
 of divine revelation ; that the religion which they desire to uphold, must 
 be suspected hkewise ; and, without the fear of the civil sword, contra- 
 dicted and rejected. 
 
 That which taketh away the reputation of wisdom, in him that formeth 
 a religion, or addeth to it when it is already formed, is the enjoining of a 
 belief of contradictories ; for both parts of a contradiction cannot possibly 
 be true ; and therefore to enjoin the belief of them, is an argument of 
 ignorance ; which detects the author in that ; and discredits him in all 
 things else he shall propound as from revelation supernatural ; which 
 revelation a man may indeed have of many things above, but of nothing 
 against natural reason. 
 
 That which taketh away the reputation of sincerity, is the doing or saying 
 of such things, as appear to be signs, that what they require other men to 
 believe is not believed by themselves ; all which doings or sayings are 
 therefore called scandalous, because they be stumbling-blocks, that make 
 men to fall in the way of religion ; as injustice, cruelty, profaneness, 
 aralice, and luxury. For who can believe that he that doth ordinarily 
 such actions as proceed from any of these roots, believeth there is any such 
 invisible power to be feared, as he affrighteth other men withal for lesser 
 faults ? 
 
 That which taketh away the reputation of Jexe> is the-being -detected of 
 pri_vate ends ; as whenlhe belief "fliey require of others, conduceth or feemeth 
 to conduce to the acquiring of dominion, riches, dignity, or secure pleasure, 
 to themselves only, or specially. For that which men reap benefit by to 
 themselves, they are thought to do for their own sakes, and not for love of 
 others. 
 
 Lastly, the testimony that men can render of divine calling, can be no 
 
62 OF MAN. 
 
 other tlian the operation of miracles ; or true prophecy, which also is 
 a miracle ; or extraordinary felicity. And therefore, to those points of re> 
 ligion, which have been received from them that did such miracles ; those 
 that are added by such as approve not their calling by some miracle, 
 obtain no greater belief than what the custom and laws of the places, in 
 which they be educated, have wrought into them. For as in natural things, 
 men of judgment require natural signs and arguments ; fo in supernatural 
 things, they require signs supernatural, which- are miracles, before they 
 consent inwardly, and from their hearts. 
 
 All which causes of the weakening of men's faith, do manifestly appear 
 in the examples following. First, we have the example of the children of 
 Israel ; who when Moses, that had approved his calling to them by 
 miracles, and by the happy conduct of them out of Egypt, was absent but 
 forty days, revolted from the worship of the true God, recommended 
 to them by him ; and setting up (Exod. xxxiii. i, 2) a golden calf for their 
 god, relapsed into the idolatry of the Egyptians ; from whom they had been 
 so lately delivered. And again, after Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and that 
 generation which had seen the great works of God in Israel (Judges ii. 11) 
 were dead ; another generation arose, and served Baal. So that miracles 
 failing, faith also failed. 
 
 Again, when the sons of Samuel (l Sam. viii. 3) being constituted by their 
 father judges in Bersabee, received bribes, 'and judged unjustly, the people 
 of Israel refused any more to have God to be their king, in other manner 
 than He was king of other people ; .and tlieiefore cried out to Samuel, to 
 choose them a king after the manner of the nations. So that justice failing, 
 faith also failed ; insomuch, as they deposed their God from reigning over 
 them. 
 
 ■ And whereas in the planting of Christian religion, the oracles ceased in 
 all parts of the Roman empire, and the number of Christians increased 
 wonderfully every day, and in every place, by the preaching of the Apostles 
 and Evangelists ; a great part of that success may reasonably be 
 attributed to the contempt into which the priests of the Gentiles of that 
 time had brought themselves by their uncleanness, avarice, and juggling 
 between princes. Also the religion of the Church of Rome, was partly for 
 the same cause abolished in England, and many other parts of Christendom, 
 insomuch, as the failing of virtue in the pastors, maketh faith fail in 
 the people : and partly from bringing of the philosophy and doctrine ot 
 Aristotle into religion, by the schoolmen ; from whence there arose so many 
 contradictions and absurdities, as brought the clergy into a reputation both 
 of ignorance and of fraudulent intention ; and inclined people to revolt from 
 them, either against the will of their own princes, as in France and 
 Holland ; or with their will, as in England. 
 
 Lastly, amongst the points by the Church of Rome declared necessary for' 
 salvation, there be so many, manifestly to the advantage of the Pope, and 
 ol his spiritual subjects, residing in the territories of other Christian "piinces, 
 that were it not for the mutual emulation of those princes, they might with- 
 out war or trouble, exclude all foreign authority, as easily as it had been 
 excluded in England. For who is there that does not see to whose benefit 
 it conduceth, to have it believed that a king hath not his authority from 
 Clirist, unless a bishop erown him ? That a king, if he be a priest, cannot 
 marry ? That whether a prince be bom in lawful marriage, or not, must be 
 judged by authority from Rome? That subjects may be freed from their 
 allegiance, if by the Court of Rome the king be judged an heretic ? That 
 a king, as Chilperic of France, may be deposed by a pope, as Pope 
 Zachary. for no cause ; and his kingdom given to one of his subjects ? Thai 
 the clergy and regulars, in what country soever, shall be exempt from 
 
IN AT URAL CONDITION OF MANKIND. 63 
 
 r 
 
 the jurisdiction of their king in cases criminal ? ; Or who does not see, to 
 whose profit redound the fees of private masses, and vales of purgatory^ 
 with other signs of private interest, enough to mortify the most lively faith', 
 if, as I said, the civil ma<;istrate and custom did not more sustain it, than 
 any opinion they have of the sanctity, wisdom, or probity of their teachers ? 
 So that I may attribute all the changes of religion in the world to one and 
 the same cause ; and that is, unpleasing priests ; and those not only amongst 
 Catholic, but even in that Church that hath presumed most of reformation. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Of the Natural Condition of Mankind as concerning their Felicity 
 and Misery. 
 
 Nature hath made men so equal, in the facultias of the body and mind ; as 
 that though there be found one man sometimes manifestly stronger in body, or 
 of quicker mind than another, yet when all is reckoned together, the difference 
 between man and nian, is not so considerable, as that one man canTFere- 
 upon claiiirToTiimself any benefit, to which another may not pretend, as 
 well as he. For as to the strength of body, the weakest has strength 
 enough to kill the strongest, either by secret machination, or by confederacy 
 with others, that are in the same danger with himself. 
 
 And as to the faculties of the mind, setting aside the arts grounded upon 
 words, and especially that skill of proceeding upon general and infallible 
 rules, called science ; which very few have, and but in few things ; as being 
 not a native faculty, born with us ; nor attained, as prudence, vrtiile we look 
 after somewhat else, I find_J[et a greater equality amongst men than that 
 of strength. For prudence is but experience ; which equal time, equally 
 Bestows on all men, in those things they equally apply themselves unto. 
 That which may perhaps make such equality incredible, is but a vain con- 
 ceit of one's own wisdom, which almost all men think they have in a 
 greater degree than the vulgar ; that is, than all men but themselves, and a 
 few others, whom by fame or for copcurring with themselves, they approve. 
 For such is the nature of men, that howsoever they may acknowledge many 
 others to be more witty, or more eloquent, or more learned ; yet they will 
 hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves ; for they see their own 
 wit at hand, and other men's at a distance. But this proveth rather that 
 men are in that point equal, than unequal. For there is not ordinarily a 
 greater sign of the equal distribution of anything, than that every man is 
 contented with his share. 
 
 From this equalitj^of, ability, ariseth equality of hope in the attaining of 
 our ends. And' therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which 
 nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies ; and in the way 
 to their end, which is principally their own conservation, and sometimes 
 their delectation only, endeavour to destroy or subdue one another. And 
 from hence it comes to pass, that where an invader hath no more to fear 
 than another man's single power; if one plant, sow, build, or possess a con- 
 venient seat, othei-s may probably be expected to come prepared with 
 lorces united, to dispossess and deprive him, not only of the fruit of his 
 labour, but also of his life or liberty. And the invader again is in the like 
 danger of another. 
 
 And from this diffidence of one another, there is no way for any man to 
 secure himself, so reasonable, as anticipation ; that is, by force, or wiles, to 
 master the persons of all men he can, so long, till he see no other power 
 
64 OF MAN, 
 
 great enough to endanger him : and this is no more than his own conserva- 
 tion requireth, and is generally allowed. Also because theire be some, that 
 taking pleasure in contemplating their own power in the acts of conquest, 
 which they pursue farther than their security requires ; if ethers, that other- 
 wise would be glad to be at ease within modest bounds, should not by 
 invasion increase their power, they would not be able, long time, by stand- 
 ing only on their defence, to subsist. And by consequence, such augmenta- 
 tion of deminion over men being necessary to a man's conservation, it 
 ought to be allowed him. 
 
 Again, men have no pleasure, but on the contrary a great deal of grief, 
 in keeping company, where there is no power able to overawe them all. 
 For every man looketh that his companion should value him, at the same 
 rate he sets upon himself : and upon all signs of contempt, or undervaluing, 
 naturally endeavours, as far as he dares, (which amongst them that have no 
 common power to keep them in quiet, is far enougli to make them, destroy 
 e.ich other,) to extort a greater value from his contemners, by damage ; and 
 from others, by the example. 
 
 I So thai, iji^ the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. 
 
 [ First, comgetitioti ; secondly, dlffidencej^ thirdly, glory. 
 
 The ?rit7maReER~ineinii vacTe for gain ; the second, for safety ; and the 
 third, for reputation. The first use violence, to make themselves masters of 
 other men's persons, wives, children, and cattle ; the second, to defend 
 them ; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, 
 and any other sign of undervalue, cither direct in their persons, or by 
 reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or 
 thgir name. 
 
 ^^ Hereby it is manifest, that dudng the time men live without a common 
 
 ''^ power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called 
 war ; and sucli a war, as is of every man, against every man. For "war" 
 consisteth not in battle only, or the act of fighting ; but in a tract of time, 
 wherein the will to contend by battle is sufficiently known : and therefore 
 the notion of " time" is to be considered in the nature of war, as it is in 
 the nature of weather. For as the nature of foul weather lieth not in a 
 shower or two of rain, but in an inclination thereto of many days together ; 
 so the nature of war consisteth not in actual fighting, but in the known 
 disposition thereto during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary. 
 All other time is " peace." 
 
 Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man 
 is enemy to every man, the same is consequent to the time wherein men live 
 without other security than what their own strength and their own invention 
 shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, 
 because the fruit thereof is uncertain, and consequently no culture of the 
 earth ; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by 
 sea ; no commodious building ; no instruments of moving and removing 
 such things as require much force ; no knowledge of the face of the earth •■ 
 /no account of time ; no arts ; no letters ; no society ; and, which is wors. 
 
 Y of all, continual fear and danger of violent death ; and the life of man, soli- 
 tary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. 
 
 It may seem strange to some man, that has not well weighed these things, 
 that Nature should thus dissociate, and render men apt to invade and de- 
 stroy one another ; and he may therefore, not trusting to this inference, 
 made from the passions, desire perhaps to have the same confirmed by ex- 
 perience. Let him therefore consider with liimself, when taking a journey, 
 he arms himself, and seeks to go well accompanied ; when going to sleep, 
 he locks his doors ; when even in his house, be locks his chests; and this, 
 when he knows there be laws, and public ofSceis, armed, to revenge all 
 
NATURAL LAWS. 65 
 
 injuries shall be clone him ; what opinion he has of his fellow-subjects, when 
 he rides armed j of his fellow- citizens, when he locks his doors; and of 
 his children and servants, when he locks his chests. Does he not there 
 as much accuse mankind by his actions as I do by my words ? But neither 
 of us accuse man's na'ure iu it. The desires and other passions of man are 
 in themselves no sin. No more are the actions that proceed from those 
 passions, till they know a law that forbids them ; which till laws be made 
 they cannot know, nor can any law be made till they have agreed upon 
 the person that shall make it. 
 
 It may perad venture be thought there was never such a time nor condi- 
 tion of war as this ; and I believe it was never generally so, over all the 
 world, but there are many places where they live so now. For the savage 
 people in many places of America, except the government of small families, 
 the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust, liave no government at all, 
 and live at this day in that brutish manner, as I said before. Howsoever, 
 
 it may be perceived what manner of life there would be, where there were 
 
 no common power to fear, by the manner of life which men tliat have lor- 
 merly Jived unaer a peacelul government, use to degenerate into in a civil war. 
 
 But though there had never been anytime, wherein particular men were 
 in a condition of war one against another ; yet in all limes, kings, and 
 persons of sovereign authority, because of their independency, are in ^ ^- 
 continual jealousies, and in the state and posture of gladiators ; having their ^ 
 weapons pointing, and their eyes fixed on one another ; that is, their forts, 
 garrisons, and guns upon the frontiers of their kingdoms ; and continual 
 spies upon their neighbours ; which is a posture of war. But because they 
 uphold thereby the industry of their subjects ; there does not follow from ^ 
 
 it that misery which accompanies the liberty of particular men. / 
 
 To this war of every man, against every man, this also is consequent ; ^^ ^ 
 that nothin p ; can be ur^iiyr. The notions of right and wrong, justice and 
 injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is 
 no law : where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud, are in war the two 
 cardinal virtues. Justice and injustice are none of the faculties neither of 
 the body nor mind. If they were, they might be in a man that were alone 
 in the world, as well as his senses, and passions. They are qualities that 
 relate to men in society, not in solitude. It is consequent also to the same 
 condition, that there be no propriety, no dominion, no "mine" and 
 " thine " distinct ; but only that to be every man's, that he can get ; and fc^<^ 
 so long, as he can keep it. And thus much for the ill condition, which 
 man by mere nature is actually placed in ; though with a possibility to 
 come out of it, consisting partly in the passions, partly in his reason. 
 
 Tlie passions that incline men to peace, are fear of death ; desire of such 
 things as are necessary to commodious living ; and a hope by their industry 
 to obtain them. And reason suggesteth convenient articles of peace, upon 
 which men may be drawn to agreement. These articles are they which.' 
 otherwise are called the Laws of Nature : whereof I shall speak more par- 
 ticularly, in the two following chapters. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of Contn^ik 
 
 " The right o f Na ture," which writers commonly caW jus naiurale, is the 
 liberty eScli lUUil hath, to usejas-aw" jower, as he_ wjll, himself '°£j.^® 
 ,'55ffeeil^ftaBT#1liys\vlI nature; tHatTs To" say, Bf "KToSm'lifeT'aKir conse- 
 
 C 
 
 1\ 
 
 ( 
 
66 OF MAN. 
 
 quently; of doing anything, which in his own judgment and reason he shall 
 conceive to be the aptest means thereunto. ' 
 
 By " l iberty, " is understood, according to the proper signification of the 
 wnrrlj^His ahsSnce nf f y|;firpal impedimenta ; which impediments may oft 
 take away part of a man's power to do wllat he would ; but cannot hinder 
 him from using the power left him, according as his judgment and reason 
 
 S shall dictate to him. 
 A " la w of Nat ure. " kx naturalis, is a precep t pr_gerieral rulCj^ found out 
 bTyi^Igg, by wfiich a man isjorbidden to do tKat which is destructive o f 
 m^meTor taketTr'away the means ot preservTng the same'; and to omit 
 that, by which he thlhKetTi" iFmay'be Best preserved. For though they 
 that speak of this subject, use to confound jus and lex, " right " and 
 " law : " yet they oiigh t to be distinguished : b ecause " rjghtj" consisteth 
 in. liberty-to do, br-tQ,iaiBgarjL wnereaS ''^' law," 'determineth and"'bm'3eth 
 to one (i^thera ; so that law an"d "right' "diHer as 'much as oBTl^tionand 
 liberty ; which in one and the same matter are inconsistent. 
 •'' And because the condition of man, as hath been declared in the precedent 
 chapter, is a condition of war of every one against every one ; in which case 
 ■- every one is governed by his own reason ; and there is nothing he can make 
 --. use of, that may not be a help unto him, in preserving his life against his 
 enemies ; it foUoweth, that in such a condition, every man has a right to 
 everything ; eveji to one another's body. And therefore, as long as this 
 natural rig"ht of every man to everything endureth, there can be no security 
 to any man, how strong or wise soever he be, of living out the time, which 
 Nature ordinarily alloweth men to live. And consequently it is a precept, 
 or general rule of reason, "that every man ought to endeavour peace, as, 
 far as he has hope of obtaining it ; and when he cannot obtain it, that he 
 may seek, and use, all helps, and advantages of war." The first branch of 
 which rule, containeth the first, and fundamental jajv.o|_Natme.; which is, 
 "to seek peace, aud^£!llpw_itj^'___The._secondj.. the__sum of the right of 
 Nature : which is, " by alfmeans we can, to defeTiS oiireelves." 
 /T From this fundamental law of Nature, by wliich men are commanded to 
 j/endeavour peace, is derived this second law ; '4that a^man be willing, when 
 J^2tIj£j5Ju;e,so4QQ,^a,s jar^grjll^gis IJor- peace^.and deKMe <^^imself B^jKall 
 y tliinkit necessary, to^y3^n_this right to all things"; and be contented 
 t^lth - Sti jmuch Ji3iaiy_agSoslL..other_meiv_as he ^ would allow other men 
 agains t himself." For as long as every man holdeth this right, of 'doing 
 auytntBgTie liketh ; so long are all men in the condition of war. But if 
 other men will not lay down their right, as well as he j then there is no 
 reason for any one to divest himself of his : for that were to expose himself 
 to pre/, which no man is bound to, rather than to dispose himself to peace. 
 This is that law of the Gospel ; " whatsoever you require that others should 
 do to you, that do ye to them." And that law of all men, quod Hbi fieri 
 nan vis, alteri nefeceris. 
 
 To '_' lay down" a man's " right" to anything, is to "divest " himself of 
 the " liberty," of hindering another of the benefit of his own right to the 
 same. For he that renounceth, or passeth away his right, givethnot to any 
 other man a right which he had not before; becausetjieie_is. ^nothing to 
 which every man had not right_by Nature : but (mlystandeth out oT his 
 way, thatlle^may-gnjoy his owifofiginal right, without hindrance from 
 him ; not without hindrance from another. So that the effect which 
 redoundeth taone man, by another man's defect of right, is but so much 
 diminution oiimpediments to the use of his own right original. 
 
 Right is laid aside, either by simply renouncing it ; or by transferring it 
 to another. By " simply renouncing ; " when he cares not to whom t"** 
 benefit thereof^ redpundeth. By "transferring;" when he intendeth 
 
 r. 
 
h 
 
 2] 
 
 NATURAL LAWS. 67 
 
 benefit thereof to some certain person or persons. And when a man hath in 
 feither manner abandoned; or granted away his riglit ; then is he said to be 
 "obliged,"_gr_'Mbound,"npt__tQjjindet those, to whom^ such right is 
 granTed, or abandoned, from the benefit of it : and that he " ought," and it is 
 hTs "duty," not to make void that voluntary act of his own :. and that such 
 hindrance is "injustice," "and "injury," as being sine jure; the right being 
 before renounced, or transferred. So that " injury," or " injustice," in the 
 controversies of the world, is somewhat like to that, which in the dis- 
 putations of scholars is called " absurdity." For as it is there called an 
 absurdity, to contradict what one maintained in the beginning : so in the 
 world it is called injustice and injury voluntarily to undo that from the 
 beginning he had voluntarily done. The way by which a man either simply 
 renounceth, or transferreth his right, is a declaration, or signification, by 
 some voluntary and sufficient sign, or signs, that he doth so renounce, or 
 transfer ; or hath so renounced, or transferred the same, to him that accepteth 
 it. And these signs are either words only, or actions only ; or, as it happeneth 
 most often, both words and actions. And the same are the "bonds," by 
 which men are bound, and obliged : bonds, that have their strength, not 
 from their own nature, for nothing is more easily broken than a man's 
 word, but from fear of some..fi3al-con«eqaence-i;pon,the-*af>taTe. 
 
 Whensoever a man transferreth his right, or renounceth it, it is either in J 
 consideration of some right reciprocally transferred to himself ; or for some \ 
 Qther good he bopeth for thereby. For it is a voluntary act : and of the - 
 voluntary acts of every man, the object is some "ggg^to himself." And 
 therefore there be some rights, which no man can Se'undefstSod by 
 any words, or other signs, to have abandoned or transferred. As first 
 la man cannot lay down the right of resisting them that assault him by 
 ' force, to take away his life ; because he cannaL_bs-understood to aim 
 tKrSby at any good to himself. . The same may be said of wounds, and ., 
 chains, and imprisonment ; both because there is no benefit consequent to 
 such patience ; as there is to the patience of suffering another to be 
 wounded, or imprisoned ; as also because a man cannot tell, when he seeth 
 men proceed against him by violence, whether they intend his death or not. 
 And lastly theiuolise'andend for which this renouncing, and transferring of 
 riglit is introduced, is nothing else but the security o f amaif|s_E£r5on, in his 
 life, and in the means of so preserving life, as not to Be'weaiy of it. And 
 therefore if a man by words, or other sigus, seem to despoil himself of the 
 end, for which those signs were intended ; he is not to be understood as if 
 he meant it, or that it was his will ; but that he was ignorant of how such 
 words and actions were to be mterpreted. 
 
 The mutual transferring of right, is that which men__call ILcontract. " 
 
 There is difference between transfei-ring oTright to the thing ; and trans- 
 ferring, or tradition, that is deliveiy of the thing itself. For the thing may 
 be delivered together with the translation of the right ; as in buying and 
 selling with ready money ; or exchange of goods, or lands ; and it may be 
 delivered some time after. 
 
 Again, one of the contractprs may deliver the thing contracted for on his 
 part, and leave the other to perform his part at some determinate time after, 
 and in the meantime be trusted ; and then the contract on his part is called 
 " pact," or " covenant : " or both parts may contract now, to perform here- 
 after ; in which cases, he that Is to perform in time to come, being trusted, 
 his performance is called "keeping of promise," or faitk ; and the failing 
 of performance, if it be voluntary, " violation of faith." 
 
 When the transferring of right, is not mutual : but one of the parties, 
 transferreth, in hope to gain therebyfriendship, or service from another, or 
 from his friends ; or in hope to gain the reputation of charity, or mag- 
 
 L 
 
i 
 
 '68 OF MAN. 
 
 nanimity, or to deliver his mind from the pain of compassion ; or in hope 
 of reward in heaven ; this is not contract, but "gift," "free gift, "" grace," 
 vi'hich vpords signify one and the same thing. 
 
 Signs of contract, are either " express," or "by inference." Express, are 
 words spoken with understanding of what they signify ; and such words are 
 either of the time " present," or "past ; " as, "I give," " I grant," "I have 
 
 ' I will give, " "I will grant ; " which words of the future are called 
 " promise." 
 
 Signs by inference are sometimes the consequence of words ; sometimes 
 
 I the consequence of silence ; sometimes the consequence of actions ; some- 
 
 i times the consequence of forbearing an action : and generally a sign by in- 
 
 Vference, of any contract, is whatsoever sufiSciently argues the will of the 
 
 \ contractor. 
 
 Words alone, if they be of the time to come, and contain a bare promise, 
 ' are an insufficient sign of a free gift, and therefore not obUgatoiy. For if 
 they be of the time to come, as " to-monow I will give," they are a. sign I 
 have not given yet, and consequently that my right is not transferred, but 
 remaineth till I transfer it by some other act. But if the words be of the 
 time present, or past, as, "I have given," or, " do give to be delivered to- 
 morrow," then is my to-morrow's right given awayta-day ; and that by the 
 virtue of the words, though there were no other argument of my will. And 
 there is a great difference in the signification of these words, volo hoc tuum 
 esse eras, and eras daio ; that is, between " I will that this be thine to- 
 morrow," and, " I will give it thee to-morrow :" for the word " I will,'-' in 
 the former manner of speech, signifies an act of the will present ; b^uTTn the 
 latter, it signifies a promise o f aa jacLpf tlie-mllJo come ; and therefore the 
 former words, being of the present, transfer a future right ; the latter, that 
 be of the future, transfer nothing. But if there be other signs of the will 
 to transfer a right, besides words, then, though the gift be free, yet may the 
 right be understood to pasi by words of the future : as if a man propound 
 a prize to him that comes first to the end of a race, the gift is free ; and 
 though the words be of the future, yet the right passeth : for if he would 
 not have his words so be understood, he should not have let them run. 
 
 In contracts, the right paSseth, not only where the words are of the time 
 present, or past, but also where they are of the future : because all contract 
 is mutual translation, or change of right ; and therefore he that promiseth 
 only, because he hath already received the benefit for which he promisetli, 
 is to be understood as if he inteiided the right should pass : for unless he 
 had been content to have his words so understood, the other would not have 
 performed his part first. And for that cause, in buying and selling, and 
 other acts of contracts, a promise is equivalent to a covenant ; and therefore 
 obligatory. 
 
 He that performeth first in the case of a contract, is said to ' ' merit " that 
 which he is to receive by the performance of the other ; and he hath it as 
 "due." Also when a prize is propounded to many, which is to be given 
 to him only that winneth ; or money is thrown amongst many, to be 
 enjoyed by them that catch it ; though this be a free gilt ; yet so to win, or 
 so to catch, is to "merit," and to have it as "due." For the right is 
 transferred in the propounding of the prize, and in throwing down the 
 money ; though it be not determined to whom, but by the event of the con- 
 tention. But there is between these two sorts of merit, this difference, that 
 m contract, I merit by virtue of my own power, and the contractor's need ; 
 but m this case of free gift, I am enabled to merit only by the benignity of 
 the giver : in contract, I merit at the contractor's hand that he should depart 
 with his right ; in this case of gift, I merit not that the giver should part 
 
NATURAL LA WS. 69 
 
 with liis right ; but that when he has parted with it, it should be mine, rather 
 than another's. And this I think to be the meaning of that distinction of 
 the schools, between meritum congrui, and meritnm condigni. For God 
 Almighty, having promised Paradise to those men, hoodwinked with carnal 
 desires, tliat can walk through this world according to the precepts and 
 limits prescribed Uf Him ; tliey say, he that shall so walk, shall merit Para- 
 dise ex congruo. f But becaiise no man can demand a right to it, by his own 
 righteousness, or any other power in himsAjf, but by the free grace of God 
 only ; they say, no man can merit VaxaSxs^lxcondigno. This I say, I think 
 is the meaning of that distinction ; but because disputers do not agree upon 
 the signification of their own terms of art, longer than it serves their turn ; 
 I will not affirm anything of their meaning : only this I say ; when a gift iai/' 
 given indefinitely, as a prize to be contended for, he that winneth meriteth, 
 and may claim the prize as due. 
 
 If a convenant be made, wherein neither of the parties perform presently, 
 but trust one another ; in the condition of mere nature, which is a condition 
 of war of every man against every man, upon any reasonable suspicion, it 
 is void ; but if there be a common power set over them both, with right 
 and force sufficient to compel performance, it is not void. For he that per- 
 formeth first, has no assurance the other will perform after ; because the 
 bonds of words are too weak to bridle men's ambition, avarice, anger, and 
 other passions, without the fear of some coercive power ; which in the con- 
 dition of mere nature, where all men are equal, and judges of the justness 
 of their own fears, cannot possibly be supposed. And therefore he which 
 performeth first, does but betray himself to his enemy ; contrary to the 
 right, he can never abandon, of defending his life and means of living. 
 
 But in a civil estate, where there is a power setup to constrain those that 
 would otherwise violate their faith, that fear is no more reasonable, and 
 for that cause, he which by the covenant is to perform first, is obliged so 
 to do. 
 
 The cause of fear, which maketh such a covenant invalid, must be always i 
 something arising after the covenant made ; as S9me new fact, or other sign / 
 of the will not to perform ; else it cannot make the covenant void. For 
 that which could not hinder' a man from promising, ought not to be 
 admitted as a hindrance of performing. 
 
 He that transferreth any right, transferreth the means of enjoying it, as 
 far as lieth in his power. As he that selleth land, is understood to transfer 
 the herbage, and whatsoever grows upon it : nor can he that sells a mill 
 turn away the stream that drives it. And they that give to a man the 
 right of government in sovereignty, are understood to give him the right of 
 levying money to maintain soldiers ; and of appointing magistrates for the 
 administration of justice. 
 
 To make covenants with brute beasts, is impossible ; because not under- 
 standing our speech, they understand not, nor accept of any translation of 
 right ; nor can translate any right to another : and without mutual accepta- 
 tion, there is no covenant. 
 
 To make covenant with God, is impossible, but by mediation of such as 
 God speaketh to, either by revelation supernatural, or by His lieutenants 
 that govern under Him, and in His name : for otherwise we know not 
 whether our covenants be accepted, or not. And therefore they that vow 
 anything contrary to any law of Nature, vow in vain ; as being a thing un- 
 just to' pay such vow. And if it be a thing commanded by the law of 
 Nature, it is not the vow, but the law that binds them. 
 
 The matter, or subject of a covenant, is always something that falleth 
 under deliberation ; for to covenant is an act of the will ; that is to say, an 
 act, and the last act of deliberatioi) ; and is therefore always understood to 
 
70 OF MAN. ' 
 
 be sometliing to come ; and which is judged possible for him that cove- 
 nanteth to perfoi-m. 
 
 And therefore, to promise that which is known to be impossible, is no 
 covenant. But if that prove impossible afterwards, which before was 
 thought possible, the covenant is valid, and bindeth, though not to the 
 thing itself, yet to the value ; or, if that also be impossible, to the unfeigned 
 endeavour of performing as much as is possible : for to more no man can 
 be obliged. 
 
 Men are freed of their covenants two^aajis^Jay .^aerforming, or by being 
 forgiven. For performance is the natural end of obligation ; and for- 
 giveness the restitution of liberty ; as being a retransferring of that right, 
 in which the obligation consisted. 
 
 Covenants entered into by fear, in the condition of mere nature, are 
 obligatory. For example, if I covenant to pay a ransom, or service for my 
 life, to an enemy, I am bound by it, for it is a contract, wherein one 
 rec?iveth the benefit of life ; the other is to receive money, or service for 
 it ; 'and consequently, where no other law, as in the condition, of mere 
 natiire, forbiddeth the performance, the covenant is valid. Therefore 
 pris6ners of war, if trusted with the payment of their ransom, are obliged 
 to pay it : and if a weaker prince make a disadvantageous peace with a, 
 stronger, for fear, he is bound to keep it ; unless, as hath been said before, 
 there ariseth some new and just cause of fear, to renew the war. And even 
 in commonwealths, if I be forced to redeem myself from a thief by 
 premising him inoney, I am bound to pay it, till the civil law discharge me. 
 i^or whatsoever I may lawfully do without obligation, the same I may law- 
 fully covenant to do through fear, and what I lawfully covenant, I cannot 
 lawfully break. 
 I' A former covenant rM,kes .yaiiLa later. For a man that hath passed away 
 S his right to one man 'to'-Hay, hathr ft' not to pass to-morrow to another, and 
 ' therefore the later promise passeth no right, but is null. 
 
 A covenant not to defend myself from force, by force, is always void. 
 For, as I have shown before, no man can transfer, or lay down his right to 
 save himself from death, wounds, and imprisonment, the-avoiding whereof 
 is the only end of laying down any right ; and therefore the promise of not 
 resisting force, in no covenant transferreth any right, nor is obliging. For 
 though a man may covenant thus, " unless I do so, or so, kill me," he can- 
 not covenant thus, "unless I do so, or so, I will not resist you when you 
 come to kill me." For man by nature chooseth the lesser evil, which is 
 danger of death in resisting, rather than the greater, which is certain and 
 present death in not resisting. And this is granted to be true by all men^ 
 in that they lead criminals to execution and prison, with armed men, not- • 
 withstanding that such criminals have consented to the law by which they 
 ar/condemned. 
 \\/A covenant to accuse oneself, without assurance of pardon, is likewise 
 ! invalid. For in the condition of nature, where every man is judge, there is 
 no place for accusation : and in the civil state, the accusation is followed 
 with punishment ; which being force, a man is not obliged not to resist. 
 The same is also true of the accusation of those by whose condemnation a 
 man falls into misery ; as of a father, wife, or benefactor. For the testi- 
 mony of such an accuser, if it be not willingly given, is presumed to be 
 corrupted by nature, and therefore not to be received : and where a man's 
 estimony is not to be credited, he is not bound to give it. Also accusa- 
 tions upon torture, are not to be reputed as testimonies. For torture is to 
 be used but as means of conjecture and light, in the further examination 
 and search of truth ; and what is in that case confessed, tendeth to the ease 
 of him that is tortured, not to the informing of the torturers, and therefore 
 
^LA IVS OF NA TURK. 7 1 
 
 ought not to have the credit of a sufficient testimony ; for whether he 
 deliver himself by true or false accusation, he does it by the right of pre- 
 serving his own life. 
 
 The force of words being, as I have formerly noted, too weak to hold 
 men to the performance of their covenants ; there are in man's nature but y 
 two imaginable helps to strengthen it. And those are either a fpnr nf t|ip V ^ 
 consequence of breaking their word, or a glory or pride in appearing not ^o\^^ 
 need to break it. This latter is a generosity too rarely found to be ^re^r 
 sumed on, especially in the pursuers of wealth, command, or sensual 
 pleasure, which are the greatest part of mankind. The passion to be reckoned 
 upon is fear ; whereof there be two very general objects ; one, the power of 
 spirits invisible ; the other, the power of those men they shall therein 
 oifend. Of these two, though the former be the greater power, yet the fear 
 of the latter is commonly the greater fear. The fear hi the former is in 
 every man his own religion, which hath place in the nature of man before 
 civil society. The latter hath not so, at least not place enough to keep 
 men to their promises ; because in the condition of mere nature, the 
 inequality of power is not discerned, but by the event of battle. So that 
 before the time of civil society, or in the interruption thereof by war, there 
 is nothing can strengthen a covenant of peace agreed on, against the 
 temptations of avarice, ambition, lust, or other strong desire, but the fear 
 of that invisible power, which they every one worship as God, and fear as 
 a revenger of their perfidy. All therefore that can be done between two 
 men not subject to civil power, is to put one another to swear by the God 
 he feareth, which " swearing," or " oath," is " a form of speech, added to 
 a promise ; by which he that promiseth, signifieth, that unless he perform, 
 he renounceth the mercy of his God, or calleth to Him for vengeance on 
 himself." Such was the heathen form, " Let Jupiter kill me else, as I kill 
 this beast.'' So is our form, " I shall do thus, and thus, so help me God." 
 And this, with the rites and ceremonies, which every one useth in his own 
 religion, that the fear of breaking faith might be the greater. 
 
 By this it appears, that an oath taken according to any other form, or 
 rite, than his that sweareth, is in vain ; and no oath : and that there is no 
 swearing by anything which the swearer thinks not God. For though men 
 have sometimes used to swear by their kings, for fear, or flattery ; yet they 
 would have it thereby understood, they attributed to them divine honour. 
 And that swearing unnecessarily by God, is but profaning of His name : 
 and swearing by other things, as men do in common discourse, is not 
 swearing, but an impious custom, gotten by too much vehemence of 
 talking. 
 
 It appears also, that the oath adds nothing to the obligation. For a 
 covenant, if lawful, binds in the sight of God, without the oath, as much 
 as with it : if unlawful, bindeth not at all ; though it be confirmed with 
 an oath. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Of other Laws of Nature. 
 
 From that law of Nature, by which we are obliged to transfer to another, 
 such rights, as being retained, hinder the peace of mankind, there foUoweth 
 a third ; which is this, " that men perform their cov e nants ma de ; " without 
 which, covenants are in vain, and but empty words ; and the right of all 
 men to all things remaining, we are still in the condition of war. 
 
72 OF MAM. 
 
 And in iWs laVf of Nature consistetli the fountain and original o^ 
 "justice." For where no covenant hath preceded, there hath no right 
 been transferred, and every man has right to everything ; and consequently, 
 no action can be unjust. But when a covenant is made, then to break it is 
 "unjust:" and the definition of " injust ice," jj s , n o qjher _ than _" the not 
 performance fi f covena nt." And whatsoever is not unjust, is "just."' 
 
 But because covenants of mutual trust, where there is a fear of not per- 
 formance on either part, as hath been said in the former chapter, are invalid ; 
 though the original of justice be the making of covenants ; yet injustice 
 actually there can be none, till the cause of such fear be taken away ; which 
 while men are in the natural condition of war, cannot be done. Therefore 
 Jsefore the names of just and unjust can have place, there must be some 
 ^ cnprcivp p ower tn cnrr|pi^) pipn ga^jTnlly to the performance of their covenants, 
 ^v the terror of some punishm ent, greater than the benefit they expect by 
 the breach of their covenant ; and to make good that propriety, which bj 
 mutual contract men acquire, in recompense of the universal right they 
 abandon : and such power there is none before the erection of a common- 
 wealth. And this is also to be gathered out of the ordinary definition of 
 justice in the schools : for they say, that "justice is the constant will of 
 giving to every man his own." And therefore where there is no " own," 
 that is no propriety, there is no injustice ; and where there is no coercive 
 power erected, that is, where there is no commonwealth, there is no pro- 
 priety ; all men having right to all things : therefore where there is no, 
 commonwealth, there nothing is unjust. So that the nature of justice, con- 
 sisteth in keeping of valid covenants : but the validity of covenants begins 
 not but with the constitution of a civil power, sufficient to compel men to 
 keep them ; and then it is also that propriety begins. 
 
 The fool hath said in his heart, there is no such thing as justice ; and 
 sometimes also with his tongue ; seriously alleging, that every man's 
 conservation, and contentment, being committed to his own care, there, 
 could be no reason why eveiy man might not do what he thought conduced 
 thereunto : and therefore also to makej or not make ; keep, or not keep 
 covenants, was not against reason, when it conduced to one's benefit. He 
 does not therein deny, that there be covenants ; and that they are some- 
 times broken, sometimes kept ; and that such breach of them "may be 
 called injustice, and the observance of them justice ; but he questioneth, 
 whether injustice, taking away the fear of God, for the same fool hath said 
 in his heart there is no God, may not sometimes stand with that reason, 
 which dictateth to every man his own good ; and particularly then, when it 
 conduceth to such a benefit, as shall put a man in a condition to neglect 
 not only the dispraise, and revilings, but also the power of other men. The 
 kingdom of God is gotten by violence ; but what if it could be gotten by 
 unjust violence ? were it against reason so to get it, when it is impossible to 
 receive hurt by it ? and if it be not against reason, it is not against justice ; 
 or else justice is not to be approved for good. From such reasoning as 
 this, successful wickedness hatfi obtained tHe name of virtue ; and some 
 that in all other things have disallowed the violation of faith ; yet have 
 allowed it, when it is for the getting of a kingdom. And the heaihen that 
 believed that Salurn was deposed by his son Jupiter, believed nevertheless 
 the same Jupiter to be the avenger of injustice ; somewhat like to a piece 
 of law in Coke's "Commentaries on Littleton;" where he says, if the 
 right heir of the crown be attainted of treason ; yet the crown shall descend 
 to him, and eo instante the attainder be void : from which instances a mail 
 ' will be very prone to infer, that when the heir apparent of a kingdom 
 shall kill him that is in possession, though his father ; you may call it 
 injustice, or by what other name you will ; yet it can never be against 
 
^ 
 
 LAWS OF NA TURE. 7i 
 
 reason, seeing all the voluntary actions of men tend to the benefit of tlicn^- 
 selves ; and those actions are most reasonable, that conduce most to their 
 ends. This specious reasoning is nevertheless false. 
 
 For the question is not of promises mutual, where there is no security of 
 performance on either side ; as when there is no civil power erected over the 
 parties promising ; for such promises are no covenants : but either where 
 one of the parties has performed already ; or where there is a power to 
 make him perform ; there is the question whether it be against reason, that 
 is, against the benefit of the other to perform, or not. And I say it is not 
 a^ainbt reason. For the manifestation whereof, we are to consider ; first, 
 that when a man doth a thing, which notwithstanding anything can be 
 foreseen and reckoned on, tendeth to his own destruction, howsoever some \ 
 accident which he could not expect, arriving may turn it to his benefit ; yet Jr 
 such events do not make it reasonably or wisely done. I Secondly, that in a r^tj^ 
 condition of war, wherein every man to every man, for want of a common J^ 
 power to keep them all in awe, is an enemy, there is no man who can hope 
 by his own strength, or wit, to defend himself from destruction, without 
 the help of confederates ; where every one expects the same defence by the 
 confederation, that any one else does : and therefore he which declares he 
 thmks it reason to deceive those that help him, can in reason expect no 
 other means of safety than what can be had from his own single power. 
 He therefore that breaketh his covenant, and consequently declareth that 
 he thinks he may with reason do so, cannot be received into any society, yc y 
 that unite themselves for peace and defence, but by the error of them that -jj 
 receive him ; nor when he is received, be retained in it, without seeing the ,jr^ 
 danger of their error ; which errors a man cannot reasonably reckon upon 
 as the means of his security ; and therefore if he be left, or cast out of 
 society, he perisheth ; and if he live in society, it is by the errors of other 
 men, which he could not foresee, nor reckon upon ; and consequently 
 against the reason of his preservation ; and so, as all men that contribute 
 not to his destruction, forbear him only out of ignorance of what is good for 
 themselves. 
 
 As for the instance of gaining the secure and perpetual felicity of heaven, 
 by any way, it is frivolous : there being but one way imaginable ; and that 
 is not breaking, but keeping of covenant. 
 
 And for the other instance of attaining sovereignty by rebellion ; it is 
 manifest, that though the event follow, yet because it cannot reasonably be 
 expected, but rather the contraiy ; and because by gaining it so, others are 
 taught to gain the same in like manner, the attempt thereof is against 
 reason. Tustice therefore, that is to say, keepintr o f covenantj is a rule of . / 
 reason, by which we are jorbiaden to do anything destructive to our life ; V/ 
 and consequently a law of Nature. 
 
 There be some that proceed further; and will not have the law of Nature 
 to be those rules which conduce to the preservation of man's life on earth ; 
 but to the attaining of an eternal felicity after death ; to which they think 
 the breach of government may conduce ; and consequently be just and \y 
 reasonable ; such are they that think it a work of merit to kill, or depose, or »* 
 rebel against the sovereign power constituted over them by their own consent. ^5J 
 But because there is no natural knowledge of man's estate after death ; much 7^ 
 less of the reward that is then to be given to breach of faith ; but only a belief \\ 
 grounded upon other men's saying, that they know it supematurally, or that 
 they know those that knew them, that knew others, that knew it supema- 
 turally ; breach of faith cannot be called a precept of reason, or nature. 
 
 Others, that allow for a law of Nature the keeping of faith, do neverthe- 
 less malce exception of certain persons ; as heretics, and such as use not to 
 perform tb?ir gpvenant to others ; and this alsp is against reason, For if 
 
 / 
 
74 OF MAN. 
 
 any fault of a man be sufficient to discharge our covenant made ; the ^me 
 ought in reason to have been sufficient to have hindered the making of it. 
 
 The names of ju5t, and unjust, when they are anrih^jtprl to men, sipnify 
 one things;" andwBen"'t1'iey are attributed-to ..actions^ another. When 
 they~are attributed to men, they signify conformity, or inconformity of 
 . manners, to reason. But when they are attributed to actions they 
 j signify the conformity or inconformity to reason, not of manners or 
 \ manner of life, but of particular actions. A just man, therefore, is he 
 that taketh all the care he can that his actions may be all just, and an 
 unjust man is he that neglecteth it. And such men are more often in our 
 language styled by the names of righteous and unrighteous than just and 
 unjust, though the meaning be the same. Therefore, airighteous man does 
 not lose that title by one or a few unjust actions that proceed from sudden 
 passion or mistake of things or persons ; nor does an unrighteous man lose 
 his character for such actions as he does, or forbears to do, for fear, because 
 his will is not framed by the justice, but by the apparent benefit of what he 
 is to do. That which gives to human actions the relish of justice is a cer- 
 tain nobleness or gallantness of courage, rarely found, by which a man 
 scorns to be beholden, for the contentment of his life, to fraud or breach of 
 promise. This justice of the manners is that which is meant, where justice 
 is called a virtue, and injustice a vice. 
 
 But the justice of actions denominates men, not just, but " guiltless ;'" 
 and the injustice of the same, which is also called injury, gives them but 
 the name of "guilty." 
 
 Again, the injustice of manners is the disposition or aptitude to do in- 
 jury ; and is injustice before it proceeds to act, and without supposing any 
 individual person injured. But the injustice of an action, that is to say in- 
 jury, supposeth an individual person injured, namely, him to whom tlie 
 covenant was made ; and therefore many times the injury is received by 
 one man when the damage redoundeth. to another. As when the master 
 commandeth his seivant to give money to a stranger : if it be not done, the 
 injury is done to the inaster, whom he had before covenanted to obey ; but 
 the damage redoundeth to the stranger, to whom he had no obligation, and 
 therefore could not injure him. And so also in commonwealths. Private men 
 may remit to one another their debts, but not robberies or other violences, 
 whereby they are endamaged, because the detaining of debt is an injury to 
 themselves, but robbery and violence are injuries to the pei-son of the 
 commonwealth. 
 
 Whatsoever is done to a man, conformable to his own will signified to the 
 doer, is no injury to him. For if he that doeth it, hath not passed away his 
 original right to do what he please, by some antecedent covenant, there is 
 no breach of covenant ; and therefore no injury done him. And if he have, 
 then his will to have it done being signified, is a release of that covenant ; 
 and so again there is no injury done him. 
 
 Justice of actions, is by writers divided into " co mmutati ve." and "dis- 
 tributive : " and the former they say consisteth in proportion arithmetical; 
 llieTatter in proportion geometrical. Commutative, therefore, theyplace in 
 the equality of value of the things contracted for ; and distributive, in the 
 distril)ution of equal benefit, to men of equal merit. As if it were injustice 
 ! , to sell dearer than we buy ; or to give more to a man than he merits. The 
 j value of all things contracted for, is measured by the appetite of the con- 
 tractoft : and therefore the just value is that which they be contented 
 to give. And merit, besides that which is by covenant, vi-here the per- 
 formance on one part, meriteth the performance of the other part, and falls 
 under justice commutative, not distributive, is not due by justice ; but is re- 
 warded of grace only. And therjfbia-tliisjlistinction, in the sense wherein 
 
LA WS OF NA rURE. 75 
 
 it useth to be expounded, is not right. To speak properly, commutauve 
 justice is ths iusticc of a con tractor ; that is, a penormance of covenant, 
 in buying and selling ; liiriiif, and letting to hire ; lending, and bonowing ; 
 exchanging, bartering, and other acts of contract. 
 
 And distri butive justice, the justice of an arbitrator ; that is to say, the 
 act of defining what is jiist. vVlierein, being ti^iisled by them that make him 
 arbitrator, if he perform his trust, he is said to distribute to every man his 
 own : and this is indeed just distribution, and may be called, though 
 improperly, distributive justice ; but more properly equity ; which also is a 
 law of Nature, as shall be shown in due place. 
 
 As justice dependeth on antecedent covenant; so does "gratitude" 
 depend on antecedent grace ; tRat is to say, antecedent free gift : and is the 
 f ourth law of Nature ; which may be conceived in this form, "ihat a man 
 wlilcK recguKllxJjenefit from another of mere grace, endeavour that he which 
 givelh it, have no reasonable cause to repent him of his good will." For no 
 qian givet h, but "with intention of good, to himself; because gilt is 
 vohm&ri'y7 ilUl U( Ull' V'oluntary acts, tlie object is It) tivery man his own 
 good ; of which if men see they shall be frustrated, there will be no 
 beginning of benevolence, or trust, nor consequently of mutual help; nor 
 of reconciliation of one man to another; and therefore they are to remain 
 still in the conditiou of "war," which is contrary to the first and funda- 
 mental law of Nalure, which commandeth men to "seek peace." The 
 breach of this law, is called " ingratitude," and hath the same relation to 
 grace that injustice hath to obligation by covenant. 
 
 A fifth law_ of Nature, is " c omnlaisafir. e : " that is to say, "that eveiy 
 man stay£_tg,^scominoda^e_hirnself to^ the rest." For the understanding 
 whereof, we may consider, that there is in men's aptness to society, a diversity 
 of nature, rising from their diversity of affections ; not unlike to that we 
 see in stones brought together for building of an edifice. For as that sldne 
 which by the asperity, and irregularity of figure, takes more room from 
 others than itself fills ; and for the hardness, eannot be easily made plain, 
 and thereby hindereth the building, is by the builders cast away as 
 unprofitable and troublesome : so also, a man that by asperity of nature, 
 will strive to retain those things which to himself are superfluous, and to 
 others necessary ; and for the stubbornness of his passions, cannot be cor- 
 rected, is to be left, or cast out of society, as cumbersome thereunto. For 
 seeing every man, not only by right, but also, by necessity of nature, is 
 supposed to endeavour all he can, to obtain that which is necessary for his 
 conservation ; he that shall oppose himself against it, for things superfluous, 
 is guilty of the war that thereupon is to follow ; and therefore doth that 
 which is contrary to the fundamental law of Nature, which commandeth ' ' to 
 seek peace." The observers of this law, maybe called "sociable," the 
 Latins call them commodi; the contrary, "stubborn,'' " insociable," 
 "froward," "intractable." 
 
 A gixth la w of Natujig^is this, " thatjiEai.eautiaiLS£Jl!£,fii'BS£jMM> ^ 
 man ougtit to pardon the offences past of them that repenting, desire it." 
 For '"^ardorr'^'i{otEing~but granting of p^eace; which though granted to 
 them that persevere in their hostility, be not peace, but fear ; yet not 
 granted to them that give caution of the future time, is sign of an aversion 
 to peace ; and therefore contrary to the law of Nature. 
 
 A s eventh is. "that iji revenges," that is, retribution of evil for evil, 
 "men'look noTaTtlie' greatness of .{he.exil^Eastj but_the^j;reatiKSS of the 
 good to follow." ' Whereby we are iforbidden to inffict puiiShraent with any 
 other design, than for correction of the offender, or direction of others. For 
 this law is consequent to the next before it, that commandeth pardon, upon 
 security of the future time. Besidts, revenge, without respect to the 
 
76 OF MAN. 
 
 example and profit to come, is a triumph or glorying in the hurt of another, 
 tending to no end ; for the end is always somewhat to come ; and glorying 
 to no end, is vain-glory, and contrary to reason, and to hurt without reason, 
 tendetli to the introduction of war ; which is against the law of Nature ; 
 and is commonly styled by the name of ' ' cruelty. " 
 
 And because all signs of hatred, or contempt, provoke to fight ; insomuch 
 as most men choose rather to hazard their life than not to be revenged ; we 
 may in the ei ghth place , for a law of N ature, set down this precept, "that 
 no man by deed, word77:ountenance, or^st ure. decla re hatred o r cont empt 
 o f anqt herT" Ihe breactTof wfiicE law is commonly calleS^' contumely." 
 
 Tlie"question who is the better man, has no place in the condition of 
 mere nature ; where, as has been shown before, all men are equal. The 
 inequality that now is, has been introduced by the laws civil. I know that 
 Aristotle in the first book of his " Politics," for a foundation of his doctrine, 
 maketh men by nature, some more worthy to command, meaning the wiser 
 sort, such as he thought himself to be for his philosophy ; others to serve, 
 meaning those that had strong bodies, but were not philosophers as he ; as 
 if master and servant were not introduced by consent of men, but by dif- 
 ference of wit ; which is not only against reason, but also against e.xperi- 
 ence. For there are very few so foolish, that had not rather govern 
 themselves than be governed by others : nor when the wise in their own 
 conceit, contend by force with them who distrust their own wisdom, do 
 they always, or often, or almost at any time, get the victory. If Nature 
 therefore have made men equal, that equality is to be acknowledged : or if 
 Nature have made men unequal ; yet because men that think themselves 
 equal, will not enter into conditions of peace, but upon equal terms, such 
 equality must be admitted. And th erefore for the fr i"tI)l lyY "*^ ^"tw r'*. I 
 put this, ''that.gveryman_acknowkdge_an^e^^ 
 The breach of thiiprgcept is'"j)ri3e7^ "' ' ^ 
 
 On this law dependeth another, " that at the entrance into conditions of 
 peace, no man require to reserve to^himself any right whiclj.he is not con- 
 tent should bej-eserved fo every one of the "rest." "AS it is necessary for all 
 men that seek peaE? to lay'down certain rights of nature ; that is to say, 
 not to have liberty to do all they list : so is it necessary for man's life to 
 retain some, as right to govern their own bodies ; enjoy air, water, motion, 
 ways to go from place to place ; and all things else, without which a man 
 cannot live, or not live well. If in this case, at the making of peace, men 
 require for themselves that which they would not have to be granted to 
 others, they do contrary to the precedent law, that commandeth the 
 acknowledgment of natural equality, and therefore also against the law of 
 Nature. The obs ervers of this law are those we jalLJlmodest." and the 
 breakers " arrogffiF" men.' The Greeks call the violation of this law 
 TrXeopeJia ; that is, a desire of more than their share"! 
 
 Also if "a man be trusted_t2_judg£. between man and man," it is a 
 precept of the law of Nature, " thatheid^l_equally between them." For 
 without that, the controversies of men cannorte^aeteniTined but by war. 
 He therefore that is partial in judgment, doth what in him lies, to deter 
 men from the use of judges and arbitrators; and consequently, against the 
 fundamental law of Nature, is the cause of war. 
 
 The observance of this law, from the equal distribution to each man, of 
 that which in reason belongeth to him, is called " equity," and as I have 
 said before, distributive justice : the violation, " acception of persons," 
 
 And from this foUoweth an ojher l aw, " that such things as cannot be 
 divided, be enjoyed in common^ it "II can be ; and if the quantity of the 
 thing permit, without stint ; otherwise "praportionably to the number o£ 
 
LA WS OF NA TURE. 77 
 
 them that have right." For otherwise the distribution is unequal, and 
 contrary to equity. 
 
 But some tilings there be that can neither be divided nor enjoyed in com- 
 mon. Then, the law of Nature, which prescribeth equity, requireth " that 
 the entire rtgRtPor erse," maKuTg" the use alternate, the first possession, be 
 determined by lot. " For equal distribution is of the law of Nature, and 
 other means of equal distribution cannot be imagined. 
 
 Of " lots " there be two sorts, "arbitrary," and "natural." Arbitrary 
 is that which is agreed on by the competitors : natural, is either "primo- 
 geniiute," which the Greeks call <\i]poyonla, which signifies "given by lot," 
 or "ficjtseizure." _ 
 
 /~ And tKrefore those things which cannot be enjoyed in common, nor\_/ 
 I divided, ought to be adjudged to the first possessor; and in some cases to/^ 
 ^he first born, as acquired by lot. 
 
 It is also a law of Nature, "that all men that mediate peace, be allowed 
 safe conduct." For the law that commandeth peace, as the end, com- 
 mandeth intercession, as the " means ;" and to intercession the means is 
 safe conduct. 
 
 And because, though men be never so willing to observe these laws, there 
 may nevertheless arise questions concerning a man's action ; first, whether 
 it were done, or not done ; secondly, if done, whether against the law, or 
 not against the law ; the former whereof, is called a question " of fact ; " 
 the latter a question ' ' of right, " therefore unless the parties to the question 
 covenant mutually to stand to the sentence of another, they are as far 
 from peace as ever. This other to whose sentence they submit is 
 called an "arbitrator." And therefore it is of the law of Nature, "that 
 they, that are at controversy, submit^ tligir, right to the_ judgment of an \f^ 
 arbitrator. ' 
 
 And seeing every man is presumed to do all things in order to his own 
 benefit, no man is a fit arbitrator in hisj)wn cause ; and if he were never 
 so fit; yet equitynUowlng to eacITparty equal benefit, if one be admitted to 
 be judge, the other is to be admitted also ; and so the controversy, that is, 
 the cause of war, remains against the law of Nature. 
 
 For the same reason no man in any cause ought to be received for 
 arbitrator, to whom gi'eater profit, or honour, or pleasure apparently 
 ariseth out of the victory of one party than of the other : for he hath taken, 
 though an unavoidable bribe, yet a bribe ; and no man can be obliged to 
 trust him. And thus also the ctmtroversy, and the condition of war 
 remaineth, contrary to the law of Nature. 
 
 And ill a controversy of " fact," the judge being to give no more credit to 
 one than to the other, if there be no other arguments, must give credit to 
 a third ; or to a third and fourth ; or more : for else the question is unde- 
 cided, and left to force, contrary to the law of Nature. 
 
 T hese are the laws of Nature, dictatin g peace, for a means of the conser- 
 vation of men in niultitudes ; "and whicli'onl'y""coricern the doctrine of civil 
 society. There be other things tending to the destruction of particular 
 men ; as drunkenness, and all other parts of intemperance ; which may 
 therefore also be reckoned amongst those things which the law of Nature 
 hath forbidden ; but are not necessary to be mentioned, nor are pertinent 
 enough to this place. 
 
 And though this may seem too subtle a deduction of the laws of Nature, 
 to be taken notice of by all men ; whereof the most part are too busy in 
 getting food, and the rest too negligent to understand ; yet to leave all men 
 inexcusable, they have been contracted into one easy sum, intelligible even 
 to the meanest capacity ; and that is, " Do not that to another, which thou 
 wouldst not have done to thyself ; " which showeth him that he has no 
 
 <^-'X^A> 
 
7S OF MAN. 
 
 more to ao lu icarning ths laws of Nature, but when weighing the actions 
 of other men with his own, they seem too heavy, he put them into the other 
 part of the balance, and his own into their place, that his own passions 
 and self-love may add nothing to the .weight ; and then there is none of 
 these laws of Nature that will not appear unto him very reasonable. 
 
 The laws of Nature oblige in foro interna; that is to say, they bind to a 
 desire they should take place ; but in foro exierno ; that is, to the putting 
 tliem in act, not always. For he that should be modest, and tractable, and 
 perform all he promises, in such time and place where no man else should do 
 so, should but make himself a prey to others, and procure his own certain 
 ruin, contrary to the ground of all laws of Nature, which tend to Nature's 
 preservation. And again, he that having sufficient security, that others 
 shall observe the same laws towards him, observes them not himself, 
 seeketh not peace, but war ; and consequently the destruction of his nature 
 by violence. 
 
 And whatsoever laws bind in foro interno, may be brokezi, not only by a 
 fact contrary to the law, but also by a fact according to it, in case a man 
 think it contrary. For though his action in this case be according to the 
 law, yet his purpose was against the law ; which, where the obligation is 
 in foro iniemo, is a breach. ^ 
 
 / y~ The laws of Nature are immutable and eternal ; for injustice, ingratitude, \ 
 y^ arrpgance, pride, iniquity, accepl^ion of persons, and the rest, can never be J 
 iHrade lavrful.ijFor jt can never be that war shall preserve life, and peace/ 
 'l/'Cdestroy it. </— ,-ijrf^ -^ 
 
 The same laws, because they oblige only to a desire and endeavour, I 
 mean an unfeigned and constant endeavour, are easy to be observed. For 
 in that they require nothing but endeavour, lie that endeavoureth their 
 performance, fulfiUeth them ; and he that fulfilleth the law, is just. 
 
 And the science of them is the true and only moral philosophy. For 
 moral phile»ophy is nothing else but the science of what is " good " and 
 " evil," in &e conversation and society of mankind. " Good " and " evil " 
 are names that signify our appetites, and aversions ; which in different 
 tempers, customs, and doctrines of men, are different : and dirers men, 
 differ not only in their judgment, on the senses of what is pleasant and 
 unpleasant to the taste, smell, hearing, touch, and sight ; but also of what 
 is conformable or disagreeable to reason, in the actions of common life. 
 Nay, the same man, in divers times, differs from himself ; and one time 
 praiseth, that is, calleth good, what another time he dispraiseth, and 
 oalleth evil; fiom whence arise disputes, controversies, and at last war. 
 (^nd therefore so long as a man is in the condition of mere nature, which is 
 a condition of war, as private appetite is the measure of good and evil : 
 and consequently all men agree on this, that peace is good, and therefore also 
 the way or means of peace, which, as I have showed before, are "justice," 
 " gratitude," " modesty," " equity," " mercy," and the rest of the laws of 
 Nature, are good; that is to say, " moral virtues ; " and their contrary 
 "vices," evil. Now the science of virtue and vice is moral philosophy ; 
 and therefore the true doctrine of the laws of Nature, is the true moral 
 philosophy. But the writers of moral philosophy, though they acknowledge 
 the same virtues and vices ; yet not seeing wherein consisted their good- 
 ness ; nor that they come to be praised, as the means of peaceable, sociable, 
 and comfortable living, place them in a mediocrity ot passions : as if not 
 the cause, but the degi-ee of daring, made fortitude ; or not the cause, but 
 the quantity of a gift, made liberality. 
 
 These dictates of reason, men used to call by the name of laws, but im- 
 properly ! for they are but conclusions, or theorems concerning what con. 
 duceth to the conservation and defence of themselves ; whereas law, 
 
OF PERSONS, AUTHORS, ETC. 79 
 
 properly, is the word of him that by right hath command over others. 
 But yet if we consider the same theorems, as delivered in the word of 
 God, that by right comraandeth all things ; then are they properly called 
 laws, 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Of Persons, Authors, and Things Personated, 
 
 A PERSON is he, " whose words or actions are considered, either as his own, 
 or as representing the words or actions of another man, or of any other 
 thing, to whom tliey are attributed, whether truly or by fiction. " 
 
 When they are considered as his own, then is he called a "naturaf 
 person : " and when they are considered as representing the words and 
 actions of another, then is he a "feigned " or "artificial person." 
 
 The word person is Latin : instead whereof the Greeks have itphauntav, 
 which signifies the "face," as persona in Latin signifies the "disguise," 
 or " outward appearance " of a man, counterfeited on the stage ; and some- 
 times more particularly that part of it, which disguiseth the face, as a mask 
 or vizard ; and from the stage, hath been translated to any representer of 
 speech and action, as well in tribunals as theatres. So that a "person," is 
 the same that an ' ' actor " is, bolh on die stage and in common conversa- 
 tion ; and to " personate," is to "act," or " represent " himself or another; 
 and he that acteth another, is said lo bear his person, or act in his name ; in 
 which sense Cicero useth it where he says, Unus sustineo ires personas; mei, 
 adversarii, et judicis : I bear three persons : my own, my adversary's, and 
 the judge's ; and is called in divers occasion', diversely ; as a "representer," 
 or "representative," a "lieutenant, "a " vicar," an " attorney," a "deputy," 
 a " procurator," an " actor," and the like. 
 
 Of persons artificial, some have their words and actions "owned" by 
 those whom they represent. And then the person is the " actor ; " and he 
 that owneth his words and actions, is the "author: " in which case the 
 actor acteth by authority. For that which in speaking d goods and 
 possessions is called an "owner, "and \n \ji.'(w\ doininus, in Greek xipios 
 speaking of actions, is called author. And as tlie right of possession, is 
 called dominion; so the right of doing any action, is called "authority." 
 So that by authority, is always understood a right of doing^ any act ; and 
 " done by authority," done by commission, or licence from him whose right 
 it is. 
 
 From hence it foUoweth, that when the actor maketh a covenant by 
 authority, he bindeth thereby the author, no less than if he had made it 
 himself ; and no less subjecteth him to all the consequences of the same. 
 And therefore all that hath been said formerly (chap. xiv. ) of the nature of 
 covenants between man and man in their natural capacity, is true also 
 when they are made by their actors, representers, or procurators, that 
 have authority from them, so far forth as is in their commission, but no 
 further. 
 
 And therefore he that maketh a covenant with the actor or representer, 
 not knowing the authority he hath, doth it at his own peril. Eot-no 
 man is obliged by a covenanJuwheteo£JieJs_jiat.autlior;_nor_ consequently 
 by^ cbvenaiifmaae against or beside the authority he gave^ 
 
 When the actor doth anything against the law of Nature by command of 
 the author, if he be obliged by former covenant to obey him, not he but 
 the author breaketh the Uw of Nature ; for though the action be against the 
 
8o OF MAN. 
 
 law of Nature, yet it is not his : but contrarily, to refuse to do it, is against 
 the law of Nature, that forbiddeth breach of covenant. 
 
 And he that maketh a covenant with the author by mediation of the 
 actor, not knowing what authority he hath, but only takes his word, in case 
 such authority be not made manifest unto him upon demand, is no longer 
 obliged, for the covenant made with the author is not valid without his 
 counter-assurance. But if he that so covenanteth knew beforehand he was 
 to expect no other assurance than the actor's word, then is the covenant 
 valid, because the actor in this case maketh himself the author. And there- 
 fore, as when the authority is evident, the covenant obligeth the author, not 
 the actor ; so when the authority is feigned, it obligeth the actor only, there 
 being no author but himself. 
 
 There are few things that are incapable of being represented by fiction. 
 Inanimate things, as a church, an hospital, a bridge, may be personated by 
 a rector, master, or overseer. But things inanimate cannot be authors, nor 
 therefore give authority to their actors ; yet the actors may have authority 
 to procure their maintenance, given them by those that are owners or 
 governors of those things. And therefore such things cannot be personated 
 before there be some state of civil government. 
 
 Likewise children, fools, and madmen, that have no use of reason, may 
 be personated by guardians or curators ; but can be no authors, during that 
 time, of any action done by thera longer than, when they shall recover the 
 use of reason, they shall judge the same reasonable. Yet during the folly, 
 he that liath right of governing them may give authority to the guardian. 
 But this again has no place but in a state civil, because before such estate 
 there is no dominion of persons. 
 
 An idol, or mere figment of the brain, may be personated, as were the 
 gods of the heathen, which, by such officers as the state appointed, were 
 personated, and held possessions, and other goods and rights, which men 
 from time to time dedicated and consecrated unto them. But idols cannot 
 be authors, for an idol is nothing. The authority proceeded from the state ; 
 and therefore, before introduction of civil government, the gods of the 
 heathen could not be personated. 
 
 The true God may be personated. As He was, first, by Moses ; who 
 governed the Israelites, that were not his, but God's people, not in his 
 own name, with hoc dicit Moses; but in God's name, with hoc dicit 
 Dominus. Secondly, by the Son of man. His own Son, our blessed 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, that came to reduce the Jews, and induce all nations 
 into the kingdom of His Father, not as of Himself, but as sent from His 
 Father. And thirdly, by the Holy Ghost or Comforter, speaking and work- 
 ing in the Apostles ; which Holy Ghost was a Comforter that came not of 
 Himself; but was sent, and proceeded firom them both. 
 
 A multitude of men are made " one " person, when they are by one man 
 or one person represented ; so ihatit be done with the consent of every one 
 of that multitude in particular. For it is the " unity " of the representer, 
 not the " unity " of the represented, that maketh the person " one." And 
 it is the representer that beareth the person, and but one person ; and 
 " unity " cannot otherwise be understood in multitude. 
 
 And because the multitude naturally is not " one," but " many," they 
 cannot be understood for one ; but many authors, of everything their 
 representative saith, or doth in their name ; every man giving their com- 
 mon representer authority from himself in particular, and owning all the 
 actions the representer doth, in case they give him authority without stint : 
 otherwise, when they limit him in what and how far he shall represent 
 them, none of them owneth more than they gave him commission to act. 
 . And if the representative consist qf many men, the voice gf the greater 
 
OF PERSONS, AUTHORS, ETC. 8i 
 
 numl^er must be considered as the voice of them all. For if the lesser 
 number prnnriiTSwa-AL^ aample, in the affirm '-Hy; gj^'} |yip jn-eatsr in t)ie^ 
 negative, there will be negatives more than enough to destroy the affirma- 
 tives ; and thereby the excess of negatives, standing uncontradicted, are the 
 only voice the representative hath. 
 
 And a representative of even number, especially when the number is not 
 great, whereby the contradictory voices are oftentimes equal, is therefore 
 oftentimes mute and incapable of action. Yet in some cases contradictory 
 voices equal in number may determine a question ; as in condemning, or 
 absolving, equality of votes, even in that they condemn not, do absolve ; 
 but not on the contrary condemn, in that they absolve not. For when a 
 cause is heard, not to condemn is to absolve : but on the contrary, to say 
 that not absolving, is condemning, is not true. The like it is in a 
 deliberation of executing presently, or deferring till anotlier time : (or 
 when the voices are equal, the not decreeing execution is a decree of 
 dilation. 
 
 Or if the number be odd, as three or more, men or assemblies ; whereof 
 every one has by a negative voice authority to take away the effect of all 
 the affirmative voices of the rest, this number is no representative ; because 
 by the diversity of opinions, and interests of men, it becomes oftentimes, 
 and in cases of the greatest consequence, a mute person, and unapt, as for 
 many things else, so for the government of a multitude, especially in time 
 of war. 
 
 Of authors there be two sorts. The first simply so called ; which I have 
 before defined to be him, Saat owneth the action of another simply. The 
 second is he that owneth an action or covenant of another conditionally ; 
 that is to say, he undertaketh to do it if the other doth it not at or before a 
 qgjtein time. And these authors conditional, are generally called "sure- 
 tie^''~tn-tsttin, fidejussores, and spans jres; and particularly for debt, prcedss; 
 and for appearance before a judge, or magistrate, vades. 
 
PART II.— OF COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth. 
 
 The final cause, end, or design of men, who naturally love liberty, and 
 dominion over others, in the introduction -of that restraint upon themselves, 
 in vifhich we see them live in commonwealths, is the foresight of their own 
 preservation, and of a more contented life thereby ; that is to say, of 
 getting themselves out from that miserable condition of war, which is 
 necessarily consequent, as hath been shown in chapter xiii., to the natural 
 passions of men, when there is no visible power to keep them in awe, and 
 ^ tie them by fear of punishment to the performance of their covenants, and 
 observation of thosp laws of Nature set down in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 chapters. 
 
 ) For the laws of Nature, as "justice," "equity," "modesty," "mercy," 
 and, in sum, " 4oipg-te.^>tJ<««ra9-we--wott W be d oire- to," of themselves, 
 without the terror aif some power, to cause them to .be observed, are con- \ 
 trary to our natural passions, that carry us" to partiality, pride, revenge, and 
 the like. And covenants, Without the sword, are but words, and of no 
 strength to secure a man at all. Therefore notwithstaiiding the laws of 
 Nature, which every one hath then kept, when he has the will to keep them, ; 
 when he can do it safely, if there be no power erected, or not great enough / 
 for our security ; every man will, and may lawfully rely on his own strength ^ 
 and art, for caution against all other men. And in all places, where men 
 , have lived by small faniilies, to rob and spoil one another, has been a trade, 
 and so faffrom being reputed against the law. of Nature, that the greater 
 spoils they gained,-the greater was their honour ; and men observed no 
 other laws therei;3, but the laws of honour; that is, to abstain from cruelty, 
 leaving to men their lia>e.^, and instruments of husbandly. And as small 
 families did then ; so now do cities and kingdoms, which are but greater 
 families, for their own security, enlarge their dominions, upon all pretences 
 Granger, and fear of invasion, or assistance that may be given to invaders, 
 ^wi. endeavour as much as they can, to subdue, or weaken their neighbours, ' 
 by open force and secret arts, for want of other caution, justly ; and are 
 remembered for it in after .ages with honour. 
 v^ Nor is it the joining together of a small number of men, that gives them 
 
 I) X this security ; because in small numbers, small additions on the one side or 
 
 the other, make the advantage of strength so great, as is sufficient *to caiTy :^ 
 \ the victory; and therelore gives encouragement to an invasion. Jle* 
 
 multitude sufficient to confid_e in for our security, is notdetermined-by any ' 
 cefiain number, bulrby-Cgmpafison with the en emy w e fear- and is then 
 sufficient, whfin the odds of the enemy is not~6f"s3visfl3re and conspicuous 
 moment, to determine the event of war, as to move him to attempt 
 
 And be there never so great a multitude ; yet if their actions be directed 
 accordmg to their particular judgments and particular appetites they can 
 
CAUSES, ETC. OF A COMMONWEALTH. 83 
 
 expect thereby no defence, nor protection, neither against a common enemy, 
 nor against the injuries of one anotlier. For being distracted in opinions ', 
 concerning the best use and application of their strength, they do not help "■ — -' 
 but hinder one another ; and reduce their strength by mutual opposition to 
 nothing ; whereby they are easily, not only subdued by a very few that agree 
 together ; but also when there is no comma« enemy, they make war upon jj^a ■^ 
 each other, for their particular interests, ^or^f weTJould suppose a great (V 
 
 multitude of men to consent in the observation of justice, and other laws of'^'''^ 
 Nature, without a common power to keep ihem' all in awe; we might asQuxV"^ 
 well suppose all mankind to do the same ; and then there neither would be, 
 nor need to be any civil govemmeiiUor commonwealth at all ; because there 
 would be peace without subjectionV'^ — 
 
 Nor is it enough for the security, which men desire should last all the 
 time of their life, that they be governed and directed by one judgment, for _/ 
 a limited time : as in one battle, or one war. For though they obtain a / 
 
 victory by their unanimous endeavour against a foreign enemy ; yet after- 
 wards, when either they have no common enemy, or he that by one part is"" 
 held for an enemy, is by another part held for a friend', they must needs by j|^ «• 
 the difference of their interests dissolve, and fall again into a war amongst fv>UA^ 
 themselves. ' t«T 
 
 It is true that certain living" creatures, as bees and ants, live sociably one— — 
 
 with another, which are therefore by Aristotle numbered amongst political 
 creatures >vjind yet have no other direction, than their particular judgments ^ »*J 
 and appetites ; nor speech, whereby one of them can signify to another, t>')!J^ 
 what he thinks expedient for the common benefit ; and therefore some man 
 may perhaps desire to know, why njankind cannot do the same. To which 
 I answer, 
 
 Fjrst, that men are continually in competitionjfor honour and dignity, ^^,--' 
 whicli these creatures are not ; and consequentTy amongst men there ariseth 
 on that ground, envy and hatred, and finally war ; but amongst these not so. 
 
 Secondly, that amongst these creatures, the common good djffereth not 
 fromlEe private ; and being by nature indined to their private, Ihey procure 
 thereby the common benefit. .But man, whose joy consisteth in comparing 
 himself with other men, can relish nothing but what is eminent. 
 
 Thirdly, that these creatures, having not, as man, the use of reason, do 
 not see, nor think they see any fault, in the administration of their common 
 business ; whereas amongst men, there are very many that think themselves 
 wiser, and abler 10 govern the public, better, than the rest ; and these strive 
 to reform and innovate, one this way, another that way ; and thereby bring 
 it into distraction and civil war. 
 
 Fjiattjily, that these creatures, though they have some use of voice, in 
 making known to one another their desires and other affections ; yet they 
 want that art of words, by which some men can represent to others that 
 which is good in the likeness of evil ; and evil in the likeness of good ; and 
 augment or diminish ,the a'pparent greatness of good and evil ; discontenting 
 men, and troubling their peace at their pleasure. 
 
 Fifthly, irrational creatures cannot distinguish between "injury" and 
 "da&age ; " and therefore as long as they be at ease, they are not offended 
 with their fellows : whereas man is then most t r nuhlesnnnp nrhpn he is mnst -^L— -"^ 
 at 6ase ; for'tben it is that he loves to show his wisdom, and control .the 
 actionJ of them that govern the commonwealth. 
 
 Lastly, the agreement of these creatures is natural ; that of men is by 
 covenant only, which is artificial : and therefore it is no wonder if there be 
 
 Swhat else required, besides covenant, to make their agreement constant 
 aHJjich is a common power, to keep them in awe, and to direct 
 
 ^^^' ■'ommon benefit. 
 
84 
 
 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 , J The only way to erect such a common power, as may be able to defend 
 I ftlieni from the invasion of foreigners, and the injuries ot one another, and 
 I /thereby to secure them in such sort, as that by their own industry, and by 
 1 1 the fruits of the earth, they may nourish themselves and live contentedly, i-, 
 f / to confer all their power a nd strength upon one man, or upon one assRmhl;L 
 ' nf men, that mnv reduce aTT their wiUs. by plurality ot v n irps im te-eBa- 
 __^iU : which is as much as to say," to appoint one man, or assembly of men, 
 to bear their person ; and every one to own, and acknowledge himself to be 
 author of whatsoever he that so beareth their person, shall act, or cause to 
 be acted, in those things which concern the common peaK;e and safety ; and 
 therein to submit their wills, every one to his will, and thetr judgments, to 
 his judgment. This is more than consent, or concord ; it is a real unily of 
 them all, in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with 
 every man, in such manner, as if every man should say to evei-y man, " I 
 authorize and give up my right of governing myself, tonhis man, or to this 
 assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy right to him, and 
 authorize all his actions in like manner." This done, the multit ude so 
 imitpd in one pf^rsnn js called a " commonwealth." in Latin fs!'/ to.' Tliis 
 is the generation of that great "leviathan," or rather, to speak more 
 reverently, of that "mortal god," to which we owe under the "immortal 
 IGod," our peace and defence. For by this authority, given him by every 
 particulaTirran in the commonwealth, he hath the use of so much power 
 and strength conferred on him, that bv terror thereof, he is enabled to per- 
 form the wills of them all, to peace at home, and mutual aid against their 
 enemies abroad. And in him consisteth the essence of the commonwealth ; 
 which, to define it, is " one person, of whose acts a great multitude, by 
 mutual covenants one with another, have made themserv^ every one the 
 autKoi^,~tb the end he may use the strength and means of them all, as he ■ 
 shall think expedientj for their peace. and common defence."- 
 
 And he that carrieth this person is caljea "sovereign,'' and said to have 
 " sovereign power ; " and every one besides, his " subject." 
 
 The attaining to this sovereign power is by two ways. One, by natural 
 force ; as when a man maketh his children to submit themselves, and their 
 children, to his government, as being able to destioy them if they refuse ; or 
 by \yar subdueth his enemies to his will, giving them their lives on that 
 Tdition. The other is, when men agree amongst themselves to submit to 
 'ome man, or assembly of men, voluntarily, on confidence to be protected 
 by him against all others. This latter may be called a political common- 
 wealth, or common wealt h by "institution ; " and the former, a common- 
 wegJth_^f^^^cquisition.'^"""AffdTirst, 1 snail speak of a commonwealth by 
 institution. ' — 
 
 CHAPTER XVni. 
 
 Of the Rights of Sovereignk flj/ Instittiticn,, 
 
 A " COMMONWEALTH " is said to be' " instituted," when a " multitude " of 
 men do agree, and " covenant, every one, with every one," that to what- 
 soever " man," or " assembly of men," shall be given by the major past, the 
 " right " to "^present " the person of them all, that is to saj^, to be their 
 •' representative ; " evSry one, as well he that " voted for it," Tts he 
 that " voted against it," shall " authorize " all the actiojis and judgments, 
 of that man,j)r assejnbly of men, in the same-manner, as if they were .Iji.". 
 own, to the end, to live peaceably amongst themselves, audicmtft "' ""' 
 against other men. ._, ,,,^.- . .: _ .^-nons be directed 
 
 .War appetites, they can 
 
RIGHTS OF SOVEREIGNS. 85 
 
 From this institution of a commonwealtli are derived all the " rights " and 
 " faculties" of him, or them, on whom sovereign power is conferred by the 
 consent of the people assembled. 
 
 5JI£t, because they covenant, it is to be understood, they are not obliged 
 by former covenant to anything repugnant hereunto. And consequently ' 
 they that have already instituted a commonwealth, being thereby bound by 
 covenant, to own the actiwi's~and jtfdgtnents of one, cannot lawfully m ake 
 a jew covenant, amongst themselves, to be ohedient~t 'i ""y nthor, in any 
 thing wnatsbever. without h i s permissim i! And therefore, they that arej 
 EUDjects to a monarch, cannot without tiis leave cast off monarchy, and re-' 
 turn to the confusion of a disunited multitu3e ; nor transfer their person 
 from him that beareth it, to another man, or other assembly of men : 
 for they are bound, every man to every man, to own, and be reputed author 
 of all, that he that already is their sovereign, shall do, and judge fit to be> 
 done : so that any one man dissenting, all the rest should break their covenant 
 made to that man, which is injustice : and they have also every man given 
 the sovereignty to him that beareth their person ; and therefore if they 
 depose him, they take from him that which is his own, and so again it is 
 injustice. Besides, if he that attempteth to depose his sovereign, be killed, 
 or punished by him for such attempt, he is author of his own punishment, 
 as beiag by the institution, author of all his sovereign shall do : and because 
 it is injustice for a man to do anything for which he may be punished by his 
 own authority, he is also upon that title unjust. TT\.nd whereas some men 
 have pretended for their disobedience to their AlTereign, a new covenant, 
 made not with men, but with God ; this also is unjust : for there is 
 no covenant with God but by mediation of somebody that representeth 
 God's person ; which none doth but God's lieutenant, who hath the 
 sovereignty under God. But this pretence of covenant with God, is so 
 evident a lie, even in the pretenders' own consciences, that it is not only a.i\\ 
 act of an unjust, but also of a vile and unmanly dispositiorlQ 
 
 S econ dly, because the right of bearing the person of them all, is given to 
 him they make sovereign, by covenant only of one to another, and not of 
 him to any of them ; iKptp ran linpy^^ pf, hrear^ nf covenant _oji_the .part 
 of the sovereign : and consequently none of his subjects, by any pretence of 
 forfeiture, can be freed from his subjection. That he ^iucli>~is made 
 sovereign mjjJseth no covenant with his subjects beforehaodj .is-manifest ; 
 becattscttltherhenuist make it "with the whole multitude, as one party to 
 the covenant ; or he must make a several covenant with every man. With 
 the whole, as one.party, jt is impossible ; because as yet they are not one 
 person ; and if h^make so many several covenants as there be men, those 
 covenants after he hath the sovereignty are void ; because what act soever 
 can be pretended by any one of them for breach thereof, is the act both of 
 himself and of all the rest, because done in the person and by the right of 
 every one of them in particular. Besides", if any -one or more of them, 
 pretend a breach of the covenant made by the sovereign at his institution ; 
 and others, or one other of his subjects, or himself alone, pretend there was 
 no such breach, there is in this case no judge to decide the controversy ; it 
 returns therefore to the sword again ; and every man recovereth the right 
 of protecting himself by his own strength, contrary to the design they had 
 fn the institution. It is therefore in vain to grant sovereignty by way of 
 precedent covenant. The opinion that any monarch receiveth his power 
 by covenant, that is to say, on condition, proceedeth from want of under- 
 standing this easy tnith, tha t coven ants being but words^and breath, have 
 no force to oblige, contain, constrartTT-rarprotScrany man7 "but what it has 
 fronr the'^publrc; sword ;- that- is, from ttre"DniTSt~hands of tTiat man, or 
 assembly "oflEeiT that hath the sovereignty, and whose actions aie avouched 
 
86 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 by them all, and performed by the strength of them all, in him united, 4 
 Uut when an assembly of men is made sovereign ; then no man imagineth 
 any such covenant to have passed in the institution ; for no man is so dull 
 as to say, for example, the people of Rome made a covenant with the 
 Romans, to hold the sovereignty on such or such conditions ; which not 
 performed, the Romans might lawfully depose the Roman people. That 
 men see not the reason to be alike in a monarchy, and in a popular 
 government, proceedeth from the ambition of some, that are kinder to the 
 government of an assembly, whereof they may hope to participate, than of 
 
 ( monarchy, which they despair to enjoy. 
 
 / Thirdly, because the major part hath by consenting voices declared a 
 
 / sovereign ; he that dissented must now consent with the rest ; that is, be 
 contented to avow all the actions he shall do, or else justly be destroyed by 
 the rest. For if he voluntarily entered into the congregation of them that 
 were assembled, he sufficiently declared thereby his will, and therefore 
 tacitly covenanted to stand to what the major part should ordain : and 
 therefore if he refuse to stand thereto, or make protestation against any of 
 their decrees, he docs contrary to his covenant, and therefore unjustly. 
 And whether he be of the congregation or not ; and whether his consent be 
 asked or not, he must either submit to thjir decrees, or be left in the 
 condition of war he was in before ; wherein he might without injustice be 
 destroyed by any man whatsoever. 
 
 Fourthly, because_,every subject is by this_institutioii author of all the 
 actions and judgments of the sovereign instituted,"Tt ToEows, that whatso- 
 ever he doth it can be no injury to any'of his subjects, nor ought he to be 
 by any of them accused of injiistice. For he that doth anything by autho- 
 rity from another doth therein no injury to him by whose authority he 
 acteth : but by this institution of a commonwealth every particular man is 
 author of all the sovereign doth ; and consequently, he that complaineth of 
 injury from his_^overeign complaineth of that whereof he himself is author, 
 and therefore ought not to accuse any man but hiniself ; no,, nor himself of 
 injury ; because^to do injury to one's self is impossible. It is true that they 
 that have sovereign power may commit iniquity, but not injustice or injury 
 in the proper signification. 
 
 Fifthly, and consequently to that which was said last, no man that 
 \ hath sovereign power can justly be put to death, or Qt; herwise in ag ^ 
 manner by hig_siib]e£ts-pmu&hed^_^ For seeing every subject Ts author of^ 
 acTinns 01 his sovereign, he punisheth another for the actions committed by 
 himself 
 
 And because the end of this institution is the peace and defence of them 
 all ; and whosoever has right to the end has right to' the means ; it belongeth 
 of right to whatsoever man or assembly that hath ihe sovereignty to be judge 
 both of the means of peace and defence, and also of the hindrances and 
 disturbances of the same, and to do whatsoever he shall think necessary to 
 
 _ T' be done, both beforehand, for tlie preserving of peace and security, by pre- 
 vention of discord at home and hostility from abroad ; and, when peace and 
 security are lost, for the recovery of the same. And therefore, 
 1 Sixthly, it is annexed to the sovereignty to be judge of. what opinions 
 and doctrines are averse and wVat conducing to peace ; and consequently, 
 / on what occasions, how far, and what men are to be trusted withal, in 
 
 ,- speaking to multitudes of people, arid who shall examine the doctrines of 
 all books before they be published/ ^ For the actions of men proceed, from 
 their opinions, and in the well govfcimng of opinions consisteth the well- 
 governing of men's actions, in order to their peace and tBWSHI^Arit^ 
 though in matter of doctrine nothing ought to be regarded but the tnitl^^^ 
 this is not repugnant to regulating the same by peace. Ym doctrine rej^S 
 
RIGHTS OF SOVEREIGNS. 87 
 
 «ant to peace can be no more trae than peace and concord can be against 
 the law of Nature. It is true that in a commonwealth, where, by the 
 negligence or unskilfulnass of governors alid-teachers, false doctrines are by 
 time generally received ; the contrary truths may be generally offensive. 
 Yet the most sudden and rough bursting in of a new trath that can be, does 
 never break the peace, but only sometimes awake the war. For those men 
 that are so remissly governed, that they dare take up arms to defend or 
 introduce an opinion, are still in war ; and their condition not peace, but 
 only a cessation of arms for fear of one another ; and they live, as it were, 
 in the precincts of battle continually. It belongeth therefore to him that 
 hath the sovereign power to be judge, or constitute all judges of opinions 
 and doctrines, as a thing necessary to peace, thereby to prevent discord and 
 civil war. 
 
 Seventhly, is annexed to the sovereignty, the whole power of prescribing 
 the riHes, whereby every man may know what goods he may enjoy, and 
 what actions he may do, without being molested by any of his fellow- 
 subjects ; and this is it men call "propriety." For before constitution of 
 sovereign power, as hath already been shown, all men had right to all 
 things, whtch necessarily causeth war : and therefore this propriety, being 
 necessary to peace, and depending on sovereign power, is the act of that 
 power, in order to the public peace. These rules of propriety, or meum 
 and tuum, and of "good," "evil," "lawful," and "unlawful" in the 
 actions of subjects, are the civil laws ; that is to say, the laws of each 
 commonwealth in particular ; though the name of civil law be now 
 restrained to the ancient civil laws of the city of Rome, which being the 
 head of a great part of the world, her laws at that time were in these parts 
 the civil law. 
 
 Eighthly, is annexed to the sovereignty, the right of judicature ; that is 
 to say, of hearing and deciding all controversies, which mi^Tarise concern- 
 ing law, either civil or natural, or concerning fact. For without the 
 decision of controversies, there is no protection of one subject against the 
 injuries of another ; the laws concerning meum and timm are in 
 vain, and to every man remaineth, from the natural and necessary appetite 
 of his own conservation, the riglit of protecting himself by his private 
 strength, which is the condition of war, and contrary to the end for which 
 every commonwealth is instituted. \ 
 
 Ninthly, is annexed to the sovereignty, tlie right of making war and peace ' 
 with other nations and commonwealths ; that is to say, of judging when it 
 is for the public good, and how great forces are to be assembled, armed, 
 and paid for that end ; and to levy money upon the subjects to defray the 
 expenses thereof. Forthe power by which the people are-to be defended 
 consisteth in their armies, ana tne strengthof,aii-aTmy, in ihe'Tfnion of 
 their strength under one comm~and, WllioU command -the sovereign insti- 
 tuted, therefore hath ; hpciinifc-the-ee>ftioand_oLtlia--^-'*'^'ti^v^hout " 
 other institution, maketli hO.that— hath— it-sovereigm — ^And — therefbTe" 
 whosoever is made general of an army, he that hath the sovereign power is 
 always generalissimoj ■^ 
 
 Tenthly, is anne^dStfto the sovereignty, the choosing of all counsellors, 
 ministers, mag;istrate5, and officeis, both in peace and war.' 'For seeing the 
 sovereign is charged with the end, which is the common peace and defence, 
 he is understood to have power to use such means as he shall think most fit 
 for his discharge. 
 
 Eleventhly, to the sovereign is committed the power of rewarding with 
 riches or honour, and of_2H"isi'-i"g "'■''' corporal or pecuniary punishment, 
 or with ignominy, every" subject according to the law he hath formerly 
 made ; or if there be no law made, according as he shall judge most to 
 
88 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 conduce to ihe encouraging of men to serve the commonwealtli, or deterring 
 of. them from doing disservice to the same. 
 
 T~Lastly, considering what value men are naturally apt to set upon Ihem- 
 sefves^ what respect they look for from others ; and how little they value 
 other men ; from whence continually arise amongst them, emulation, 
 quarrels, factions, and at last war, to the destroying of one another, and 
 diminution of their strength against a common enertl^ it is necessary that 
 there be laws of honour, and a public rate of the worth of such men as have 
 deserved, or are able to deserve well of the commonwealth ; and that there 
 be force in the hands of some or other, to put those laws in execution. 
 But it hath already been shown, that not only the whole "militia," or 
 forces of the commonwealth; but also the judicature of all controversies, is 
 annexed to the sovereignty. To the sovereign therefore it belongeth also 
 to give titles of honour ; and to appoint what order of place and dignity 
 ; each man"5hsll"fi61d ; and what signs of respect, in public or private meet- 
 \ ings, they shall give to one another. 
 
 ;■ \s, Th^se are the rights, which make the essence of sover,ejgntij;_jj)d which 
 
 /•^e the m"arks whereby a man may discern in what inan,_m;_ assembly of 
 
 '^ mjaZjhe*iovere'ign'power i^ placed_^nd iesideth. For tliese are incom- 
 
 mumcaBIeTlmd insepararbie. "Tlie power to coin money ; to dispose of the 
 
 estate and persons of infant heirs ; to have pre-emption in markets ; and all 
 
 'Other statute prerogatives, may be transferred by the sovereign ; and yet 
 
 / the power to protect his subjects be retained. But if he transfer the 
 
 / "militia," he retains the judicature in vain, for want of execution of the 
 
 '' laws: or if he grant away the power of raising money, the "militia" is 
 
 in vain ; or if he give away the government of doctrines, men will be 
 
 frighted into rebellion with the fear of spirits. And so if we consider any 
 
 one of the said rights, we shall presently see, that the holding of all the 
 
 rest will produce no effect, in the consei-vation of peace and justice, the end 
 
 for which all commonwealths are instituted. And this division is it, 
 
 whereof it is said, " a kingdom divided in itself cannot stand ; " for unless 
 
 this division precede, division into opposite armies can never happen. If 
 
 there had not first been an opinion received of the greatest part of England, 
 
 that these powers were divided between the King, and the Lords, and the 
 
 House of Commons, the people had never been divided and fallen into this 
 
 civil war ; first between those that disagreed in politics ; and after between 
 
 the dissenters about the liberty of religion ; which have so instrvicted men 
 
 in this point of sovereign right, that there be few now in England that do 
 
 not see that these rights are inseparable, and v/ill be so generally acknow- 
 
 ' ' ledge^d at the next return of peace ; and so continue, till their miseries are 
 
 forgotten ; and no longer, except the vulgar be better taught than they have 
 
 hitherto been. 
 
 And because they are essential and inseparable rights, it follows neces- 
 sarily, that in whatsoever ^vords any of them seem to be granted away, yet 
 if the sovereign power itself be not in dire^(erms renounced, and the name 
 of sovereign no more given by the grantees to him that grants them, the 
 grant is void : for when he has granted all he can, if we grant back the 
 sovereignty, all is restored, as inseparably annexed thereunto.' 
 
 This great authority being indivisible, and inseparably annexed to the 
 sovereignty, there is little ground for the opinion of them that say of sove- 
 reign kings, though they be singulis majores, of greater power than every 
 one of their subjects, yet they be univcrsis minora, of less power than 
 them all together. For if by "all together," they mean not the collective 
 body as one person, then " all together,"and " every one," signify the same ; 
 ; and the speech is absurd. But if by " alljogether," they understand ther' 
 iis one person, which person the spvereign b?ars, then the power of a, 
 
KINDS OF COMMONWEALTH. 89 
 
 together, is the same with the sovereign's power ; and so again the speech 
 is absurd : which absurdity they se6 well enough, when the sovereignty is 
 in an assembly of the people ; but in a monarch they see it not ; and yet 
 the g^ower^f sovereignty is the same in whomsoever it be placed. 
 
 And as the power, so also 'file honour of the sovereign, ought to be 
 greater, than that of any, or all the subjects. For in the sovereignty is the 
 fountain of honour. The dignities of lord, earl, duke, and prince are his 
 creatures. As in the presence of the master, the servants are equal, and 
 without any honour at all ; so are the subjects in the presence of the 
 sovereign. And though they shine some more, some less, when they are 
 out of his sight ; yet in his presence, they shine no more than the stars in 
 the presence of the sun. 
 
 But a man may here object, that the condition of subjects is very miser- 
 able ; as being obnoxious to the lusts, and otiier irregular passions of him 
 or them that have so unlimited a power in their hands. And commonly 
 they that live under a monarch, think it the fault of monarchy ; and they 
 that live under the government of democracy, or other sovereign assembly, 
 attribute all the inconvenience to that form of commonwealth ; whereas the 
 power in '^Ufo^ms, if they be perfect enough to protect' them, is the Fame ; 
 not considermg tliat the state of man can never be without some inconimodity 
 or other; and that the greaTesF, that" in any- form of government can 
 possibly happen to the people in general, is scarce sensible, in respect of < 
 the miseries, and horrible calamities, that accompany a.^sixiLsuurCor that . 
 dissolute condition of masterless men, without subjection to laws, and a 
 coercive power to tie their hands from rapine and revenge : nor considering 
 that the greatest pressure of sovereign governors proceedeth not from any 
 delight, or profit they can expect in tlie damage or weakening of their sub- 
 jects, in whose vigour consisteth their own strength and glory ; but in the 
 restiveness of themselves, that unwillingly eontributing to their own defence, 
 make it necessary for their governors to draw from them what they can in 
 time of peace, that they may have Means on any emergent occasion, or 
 sudden need, to resist, or take advantage on their enemies. For all men 
 are by nature provided of notable multiplying glasses, that is their passions 
 and self-love, tlirough which every little payment appeareth a great griev- 
 ance ; but are destitute of those prospective glasses, namely, moral and 
 civil science, to see afar off the miseries that hang over them, and cannot 
 without such payments be avoided. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Of the Several Kinds of Commonwealth by Institution, and of Succession 10 
 the Sovereign Power. 
 
 The difference of commonwealths consisteth in the difiference of the 
 sovereign, or the person representative of all and every one of the multitude. 
 And because the sovereignty is either in one man, or in an assembly of more 
 than one ; and into that assembly either every man hath right to enter, or 
 not every one, but certain men distinguished from the rest ; it is manifest, 
 there can be but three ,kinds of commonwealth. For the representative 
 must needs be one man, or more : and if more, then it is the assembly of 
 all, or but of a part. When the representative is one man, then is 
 the commonwealth a " monarchy : " when an assembly of all that will come 
 together, then it is a ' ' dSniocracy," or popular commonwealth : when an 
 assembly of a part only, tHerTTFis called an " aristo cracy." Other kind of 
 
90 OF COMMONWEALTH. .. 
 
 commonwealth there can be none : for either one or inore, or all, must have 
 the sovereign power, which I have showntojjs jndivisible, entire. 
 
 There be other name's of gbvernmenFln the histories and books of 
 policy, as "tyranny," and "oligarchy:" but they are not the names of 
 other forms of government, but of the same forms misliked. For they that 
 are discontented under "monarchy," call it " tyranny ; " and they that are 
 displeased with "aristocracy," call it "oligarchy : " so also they which find 
 themselves grieved under a " democracy," call it " anarchy," which signifies 
 want of government ; and yet I think no man believes that want of govern- 
 ment is any new kind of government : nor by the same reason ought they 
 to believe that the government is of one kind when they like it, and 
 another when they dislike it, or are oppressed by the governors. 
 
 It is manifest, that men who are in absolute liberty may, if they please, 
 give authority to one man to represent them every one ; as well as give such 
 authority to any assembly of men whatsoever ; and consequently may 
 subject themselves, if they think good, to a monarch as absolutely as to any 
 other representative. Therefore, where there is already erected a sovereign 
 power, there can be no other representative of the same people, but only to 
 certain particular ends, by the sovereign limited. For that were to erect 
 two sovereigns ; and every man to have his person represented by two 
 actors, that by opposing one another, must needs divide that power, which, 
 if men will live in peace, is indivisible, and thereby reduce the multitude 
 into the condition of war, contrary to the end for which all sovereignty is 
 instituted. And therefore as it is absurd to think that a sovereign assembly, 
 inviting the people of their dominion to send up their deputies, with power 
 to make known their advice, or desires, should therefore hold such deputies 
 rather than themselves, for the absolute representatives of the people : so it 
 is absurd also to think the same in a monarchy. And I know not how this 
 so manifest a truth should of late be so little observed ; that in a monarchy, 
 he that had the sovereignty from a descent of six hundred years, was alone 
 called sovereign, had the iitle of Majesty from every one of his subjects, and 
 was unquestionably taken by them for their king, was notwithstanding 
 never considered as their representative ; the name without contradiction 
 passing for the title of those men, which at his command were sent up by 
 the people to carry their petitions, and give him, if he permitted if, their 
 advice. Which may serve as an admonition, for those that are the true 
 and absolute representative of a people, to instruct men in the nature of 
 that office, and to take heed how they admit of any other general repre- 
 sentation upon any occasion whatsoever, if they mean to discharge the 
 trust committed to them. 
 
 The difference^between these three kinds of commonwealth, consisteth 
 lOt in the difference of power ; biit in the difference of convenience, or 
 aptitude to produce the peace and security of the people ; for which end 
 they were instituted. And to compare monarchy with the other two, we 
 may observe ; first, that_ whosoever beareth the person of the people, or is 
 one of that assembly that bears it, beareth also his own natural person. 
 And though he be careful in his politic person to procure the common 
 interest ; yet he is more or no less careful to procure the private good of 
 himself, his family, kindred, and friends ; and for the most part, if the 
 public interest chance to cross the private, he prefers the private : for the 
 passions of men are commonly more potent than their reason. From 
 whence it follows, that where the public and povate interest are most 
 closely united, there is the public most advancBekJ/^Now in monarchy, the 
 private interest is the same with the public. ^^The rinhps^pn\y(; |-, nnd 
 hojiflutli a naftniirdj^adsejMlyJpm Jh£_ncheSjJstreii^^^ and reputation 
 oO!is..sulyectsj For no king can be rich, ribr glfofious, nor secure, whose 
 

 KINDS OF COMMOmVEALTH. 91 
 
 Subjects are either poor, or contemptible, or too weak tlirough want or 
 dissension, to maintain a'war against their enemies : whereas in a demo- 
 cracy, or aristocracy, the public prosperity confers not so much to the 
 private fortune of one that is corrupt, or ambitious, as doth many times a 
 perfidious advice, a treacherous action, or a civil war. 
 
 Secondly, that a-HLonaictLreceivet h co unsel of whom, when, and where 
 he plea seath ; and consequently may hear the opinion of men versed in the 
 matter about which he deliberates, of what rank or quality soever, and as 
 long before the time of action, and with as much secrecy, as he will. But 
 when a sovereign assembly has need of counsel, none are admitted but 
 such as have a right thereto from the beginning ; which for the most part 
 are of those who have been versed more in the acquisition of weaUh than of 
 knowledge ; and are to give their advice in long discourses, which may and 
 do commonly excite men to action, but not govern them in it. For the 
 " understanding " is by the fiame of the passions, never enlightened, but 
 dazzled. Nor is there any place, or time, wherein an assembly can receive 
 counsel with secrecy, because of their own multitude. 
 
 Thirdly, that the resolutions of a monarch, are subject to no other- 
 inconstancy, than that of human nature ; but in assemblies, besides that of 
 Nature, there ariseth an inconstancy from the number. For the absence of 
 a few, that would have the resolution once taken, continue firm, which may 
 happen by security, negligence, or private impediments, or the diligent 
 appearance of a few of the contrary opinion, undoes to-day all that was 
 concluded yesterday. 
 
 / Fourthly, tha t a mf >narr]i cannot disagree with himself, out of envy or 
 interest ; but an assembly may ; and that to such a height, as may produce 
 a civil way 
 
 Fifthly, that in monarchy there is this inconvenience ; that any subject, Qjj^ 
 by the power of one man, for the enriching of a favourite or flatterer, . \ 
 may be deprived of all he possesseth; which I confess is a great and (J^'d 
 inevitable inconvenience. But the same may as well happen, where the A, v" 
 sovereign power is an assembly : for their power is the same ; and they are ' ^ 
 as subject to evil counsel, and to be seduced by orators, as a monarch by j^^-A' 
 flatterers ; and becoming one another's flatterers, serve one another's 
 covetousness and ambition by turns. And whereas the favourites of 
 monarchs are few, and they have none else to advance but their own 
 kindred ; the favourites of an assembly are many ; and the kindred much 
 more numerous than of any monarch. Besides there is no favourite of a 
 monarch, which cannot as well succour his friends as hurt his enemies; 
 but orators, that is to say, favourites of sovereign assemblies, though they 
 have great power to hurt, have little to save. For to accuse, requires less 
 eloquence, such is man's nature, than to excuse ; and condemnation, than 
 absolution more resembles justice. 
 
 Sixthly, that it is an inconvenience in monarchy, that the sovereignty 
 may descend upon an infant, or one that cannot discern between good and 
 evil : and consisteth in this, that the use of his power, must be in the hand 
 of another man, or of some assembly of men, which are to govern by his 
 right, and in his name ; as curators and protectors of his person and 
 authority. But to say there is inconvenience in putting the use of the 
 lovereign power into the hand of a man, or an assembly of men ; is to say 
 that all govennnent is more inconvenient than confusion and civil war. And 
 therefore all the danger that can be pretended, must arise from the conten- 
 tion of those, that for an oflrce of so great honour and profit, may become 
 competitors. To make it nppear that this inconvenience proceedeth not 
 from that form of government we call monarchy, we are to consider that 
 the precedent monarch hath appointed who shall have the tuition of his 
 
92 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 infant successor, either expressly by testament, or tacitly, by not controlling 
 the custom in that case received : and then such inconvenience, if it happen, 
 is to be attributed, not to the monarchy, but to the ambition and injustice 
 of the subjects ; which in all kinds of government, where the people are not 
 well instructed in their duty and the rights of sovereignty, is the same. Or 
 else the precedent monarch hath not at all taken order for such tuition ; and 
 then the law 'of Nature hath provided this sufficient rale, that the tuition 
 shall be in him that liath, by nature, most interest in the preservation of the 
 authority of the infant, and to whom least benefit can accrue by his death 
 or diminution. For seeing every man by nature seeketh his own benefit, 
 and promotion ; to put an infant into the power of those that can promote 
 themselves by his destruction, or damage, is not tuition, but treachery. So 
 that sufficient provision being takerr against all just quarrel about the gov- 
 ernment under a child, if any contention arise to the disturbance of the 
 public peace, it is not to be attributed to the form of monarchy, but to the 
 ambition of subjects, and ignorance of their duty. On the other side, there 
 is no great commonwealth, the sovereignty whereof is in a great assembly, 
 which is not, as to consultations of peace and war, and making of laws, in 
 the same condition as if the government were in a child. For as a child 
 wants the judgment to dissent from counsel given him, and is thereby 
 necessitated to take the advice of them, or him, to whom he is committed : 
 so an assembly wanteth thg,4iiierty to dissent from the counsel of the major 
 part, be it good or bad. "jAnd as a child has need of a tutor, or protector, 
 ^^o preserve his person and autliority : so also, in great commonwealths, the 
 
 )J^ sovereign assembly, in all great dangers and troubles, have need of cusloda 
 libcrtatis; that is of dictators, or protectors of iheir authority ; which are as 
 
 " much as temporary monarchs, to whom for a time they may commit the 
 ^entire exercise of their power ; and have, at the end of that time, been 
 oftener deprivgdthereof than infant kings, by their protectors, regents, or 
 any other tutorsT^ 
 
 Though the TJinds of sovereignty be, as I have now shown, but three : 
 that is to say, monarchy, where one man has it ; or democracy, where the 
 general assembly of subjects hath it ; or aristocracy, where it is in an 
 assembly of certain persons nominated, or otherwise distinguished from the 
 rest : yet he that shall consider the particular commonwealths that have 
 been, and are in the world, will not perhaps easily reduce them to three, 
 and may thereby be inclined to think there be other forms, arising from these 
 mingled together. As for example, elective kingdoms ; where kings have 
 the sovereign power put into their hands for a time ; or kingdoms wherein 
 the king hath a power limited : which governments are nevertheless, by 
 most writers, called monarchy. Likewise if a popular, or aristocratical 
 commonwealth subdue an enemy's country, and govern the same, by a 
 president, procurator, or other magistrate : this may seem perhaps at first 
 sight, to be a democratical, or aristocratical government. But it is not so. 
 For elective Jongs., are. not sovereigns, but.ministers of the sovereign ; nor 
 limitedToiigs, sovereigns, but ministers'of theni'that have Tire sovereign 
 power : nor are those provinces which are in subjection to a democracy or 
 aristocracy of another commonwealth, democratically or aristocratically 
 governed, but monarchically. 
 
 And first, concerning an elective king, whose power is limited to his 
 life, as it is in many places of Christendom at this day ; or to certain years 
 or months, as the dictator's power amongst the Romans ; if he have right to 
 appoint his successor, he is no more elective but hereditary. But if he have 
 no power to elect his successor, then there is some other man, or assembly 
 known, which after his decease may elect anew ; or else the commonwealth 
 dieth and dissolveth with him, and returneth to the condition of war. If it b" 
 
 IS ■ 
 
KINDS OF COMMONWEALTH. 93 
 
 kno-,vn who have the power to give the sovereignty after his death, it is 
 known also that the sovereignty was in them before ; for none have right 
 to give that which they have not right to possess, and keep to themselves if 
 they think good. But if there be none that can give the sovereignty after 
 the decease of him that was first elected, then has he power, nay, he is 
 obliged by the law of Nature, to provide, by establishing his successor, to 
 keep those that had trusted him with the government from relapsing into the 
 miserable condition of civil war. And consequently he wa.s, when elected, 
 a sovereign absolute. ^! 
 
 Secondly, that king whose power is limited, i^ not superior to him or 
 them that have the power to limit it ; nna he that is not superior is not 
 supreme, that is to say, not sovereign. The sovereignty therefore was 
 always in that assembly which had the right to limit him ; and by conse- 
 quence the government not monarchy, but either democracy or aristocracy ; \ 
 as of old time in Sparta, where the kings had a privilege to lead their armies ; ' 
 but the sovereignty was in the Ephori. 
 
 Thirdly,, whereas heretofore the Roman people governed the land of 
 Judea, for example, by a president ; yet was not Judea therefore a demo- 
 cracy ; because they were not governed Iiy any assembly into the which any 
 of ihem had right to enter ; nor an aristocracy ; because they were 
 not governed by any assembly, into the which any man could enter 
 by their election : but they were governed by one person, which, though 
 as to the people of Rome, was an assembly of the people, or democracy ; 
 yet as to the people of Judea, which had no right at all of participat- 
 ing in the government, was a monarch. For though where the people are 
 governed by an assembly, chosen by themselves out of their own number, 
 , the government is called a democracy or aristocracy ; yet when they are 
 I 'governed by an assembly not of their own choosing, it is a monarchy ; not 
 of " one" man, over another man ; but of one people, over another people. 
 
 Of all these forms of government, the matter being mortal, so that not 
 only monarchs but also whole assemblies die, it is necessary, for the conser- 
 vation of the peace of men, that as there was order taken for an artificial man, 
 so there be order also taken for an artificial eternity of life: without which, men 
 that are governed by an assembly should return into the condition of war in 
 every age; and they that are governed by one man, as soon as their governor 
 dieth. This artificial eternity is that which men call the right of "succession." 
 
 There is, no perfect iaO&-0£- government.wbere the. disposing of ths_ suc- 
 cession 'is"iiot' in the present sovereign.) For if it be in any other particular 
 marTTTrpri^Ste-assernbtTpirtS' tri a person subject, and may be assumed by 
 the sovereign at his pleasure ; and consequently the right is in himself. And 
 if it be no particular man, but left to a new choice, then is the common- 
 wealth dissolved, and the right is in him that can get it ; contrary to the 
 intention of them that did institute the commonwealth, for their perpetual, 
 and not temporary security. — 1 
 
 gn a democracy, the whole assembly cannot fail, unless the multitude that I 
 to be governed fail. And therefore questions of the right of succession 
 re in that fonn of government no place at all. ., ' 
 
 .^n art aristocracy, when any of the assembly dieth, the election of another 
 into his room belongeth to the assembly, as the sovereign, to whom 
 belongeth the choosing of all counsellors and officers. For that which the 
 representative doth, as actor, every one of the subjects doth, as author. And 
 though the sovereign assembly may give power to others, to elect new men 
 for supply of their court ; yet it is still by their authority that the election is 
 made ; and by the same it may, when the public shall require it, be recalled. 
 The greatest difficulty about the right of succession is in monarchy : and 
 the difficulty ariseth from this, that at first sight, it is not manifest who is 
 
54 OF COMMONl^EALTH. 
 
 to nppolnt the successor ; nor many times, wlio it is whom he hath ap- 
 pointed. For in both these cases there is required a more exact ratiocina- 
 tion, than every man is accustomed to use. As to the question, who shall 
 appoint the successor, of a monarch that hath the sovereign authority ; that 
 is to say, who shall determine of the light of inheritance, (for elective kings 
 and princes have not the sovereign power in propriety, but in use only, ) we 
 are to consider that either he that is in possession has right to dispose of 
 the succession, or else that right is again in the dissolved multitude. For 
 the death of him tliat hath the sovereign power in propriety, leaves the 
 multitude without any sovereign at all ; that is, without any representative 
 in whom they should be united, and be capable of doing any one action at 
 all : and therefore they are incapable of election of any new monarch ; 
 every man having equal right to submit himself to such as he thinks best 
 able to protect him ; or if he can, protect himself by his own sword ; 
 ^ which is a return to confusion, and to the condition of a war of every man 
 against every man, contrary to the end for whicli monarchy had its first 
 institution. Therefore it is manifest, that by the institution of monarchy, 
 the disposing of the successor is always left to the judgment and will of the 
 present possessor. 
 
 And for the question which may arise sometimes, who it is that the 
 monarch in possession hath designed to the succession and inheritance of 
 his power ; it is determined by his express words and testament, or by other 
 tacit signs sufficient. 
 
 By express words, or testament, when it is declared by him in his lifetime, 
 viva voce, or by writing, as the first emperors of Rome declared who should 
 be their heirs. For the word heir does not of itself imply the children, or 
 nearest kindred of a man ; but whomsoever a man shall any way declare he 
 would have to succeed him in his estate. If therefore a monarch declare 
 expressly, that such a man shall be his heir, either by word or writing, then 
 is that man immediately after the decease of his predecessor, invested in the 
 light of being monarch. 
 
 But where testament and express words are wanting, other natural signs 
 of the will are to be followed, whe'reof the one is custom. And therefore 
 where the custom is, that the next of kindred absolutely succeedeth, there 
 also the next of kindred hath right to the succession ; for that if the will of 
 him that was in possession had been otherwise, he might easily have 
 declared the same in his lifetime. And likewise where the custom is, that 
 the next of the male kindred succeedeth, there also the right of succession 
 is in the next of the kindred male, for the same reason. And so it is if the 
 custom were to advance the female. For whatsoever custom a man may 
 by a word control, and does not, it is a natural sign he would have that 
 custom stand. 
 
 But where neither custom nor testament hath preceded, there it is to be 
 understood, first, that a monarch's will is, that the government remain 
 monarchical ; because he hath approved that government in himself. 
 Secondly, that a child of his own, male or female, be preferred before any 
 other ; because men are presumed to be more inclined by nature to advance 
 their own children than the children of other men ; and of their own, 
 rather a male than a female ; because men are naturally fitter than women 
 for actions of labour and danger. Thirdly, where his own issue faileth, 
 rather a brother than a stranger ; and so still the rearer in blood, rather 
 than the more remote ; because it is always presumed that the nearer of kin 
 is the nearer in affection ; and it is evident that a man receives always, by 
 reflection, the most honour from the greatness of his nearest kindred. 
 
 But if it be lawful for a monarcli lo dispose of the suecession by words of 
 contract, or testament, men may perhaps objecf a great inconvenience ; for 
 
DOMINION PATERNAL, ETC. 95 
 
 he may sell, or give his right of governing to a stranger ; which, because 
 strangers, that is, men not used to live under tlie same government, nor 
 'speaking the same language, do commonly undervalue one another, may 
 turn to (he oppression of his subjects ; which is indeed a great incon- 
 venience : but it proceedeth not necessarily from the sulijection to a 
 stianger's government, but from the unskilfulness of the governors, ignorant 
 of the true rules of politics. And therefore tlie Romans when they had 
 subdued many nations, to make their government digestible, were wont to 
 take away that grievance, as much as they thought necessary, by giving 
 sometimes to whole nations, and sometimes to principal men of every 
 nation they conquered, not only the privileges, but also the name of Romans ; 
 and took many of them into the senate, and offices of charge, even in the 
 Roman city. And this was it our most wise king, king James, aimed at, 
 in endeavouring the union of his two realms of England and Scotland, 
 which if he could have obtained, had in all likelihood prevented the civil 
 wars, which make both those kingdoms, at this present, miserable. It is 
 not tlierefove anjf injury to the people for a monarch to dispose of the suc- 
 cession by will ; though by the fault of many princes, it hath been some- 
 times found inconvenient. Of the lawfulness of it, this also is an argument, 
 that whatsoever inconvenience can arrive by giving a kingdom to a stranger, 
 may arrive also by so marrying with strangers, as the right of succession may 
 descend upon them : yet this by all men is accounted lawful. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Of Dominion Paternal^ and Despotical. 
 
 A COMMONWEALTH "by acquisition," is that, where the sovereign power 
 is acquired by force ; and it i; acquired by force when men singly, ormany 
 together by plurality of voices, for fear of death, or bonds do authorize all 
 the actions of that man, or assembly, that hath their lives and liberty in his 
 power. 
 
 And this kind of dominion, or sovereignty, differeth from sovereignty by 
 institution only in this, that men who choose their sovereign do it for fear of 
 j one another, and not of him whom they institute : but in this case, they 
 Isubject themselves to him they are afraid of. In both_cases they do it for 
 ^eftr ijvhich is to be noted by them that hold all sucIT covenants as proceed 
 from fear of death or violenee, void : whicli if it were true, no man, in any 
 kind of commonwealth, could be obliged to obedience. It is true, that in a 
 commonwealth once instituted, or acquired, promises proceeding from fear 
 of death or violence, are no covenants, nor obliging, when the thing 
 promised is contrary to the laws ; but the reason is not because it was made 
 upon fear, but because he that promiseth hath no right in the thing 
 piomised. Also, when he may lawfully perform, and doth not, it is not the 
 invalidity of the covenant that absolveth him, but the sentence of the 
 sovereign. Otherwise, whensoever a man lawfully promiseth, he unlawfully 
 brcaketh : but when the sovereign, who is the actor, acquitteth him, then he 
 is acquitted by him that extorted the promise, as by the author of such ' 
 absolution. , ' 
 
 I But the rights and consequences of sovereignty, are the same in botnTt 
 I His power cannot, without his consent, be transferred to another ; he cannot 
 forfeit it : he cannot be accused by any of his subjects of injury : he cannot , 
 -be punished by them ; he is judge of what is necessary for peace ; and 
 
96 OF COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 judge of doctrines: he is sole legislator; and supreme judge of contro-j 
 versies ; and of the times, and occasions of war, and peace : to him it be-l 
 longeth to choose magistrates, counsellors, commanders, and all other 
 officers and ministers ; and to determine of rewards and punishments, 
 honour, and order. The reasons whereof, are the same which are alleged in 
 the precedent chapter, for the same rights and consequences of sovereignty 
 by institution. 
 
 Dominion is acquired two ways ; by gengaiifln and by coa^uest. The 
 right of dominion by generation is that, wMch the parentnath over 
 his children, and is called "paternal." And is not so derived from the 
 generation, as if therefore the parent had dominion over his child because he 
 begat him; but from the child's consent, either express, or by other 
 sufficient arguments declared. For as to tlie generation, God hath ordained 
 to man a helper ; and there be always two that are equally parents ; the 
 dominion therefore over the child should belong equally to both ; and he be 
 equally subject to both, which is impossible, for no man can obey two 
 masters. And whereas some have attributed the dominion to the man only, 
 as being of the more excellerit sex ; they misreckon in it. For there is not 
 always that difference of strength or prudence between the man and the 
 woman, as that the right can be determined without war. ^ In common- 
 wealths, this controversy is decided by the civil law ; and for the most part, 
 but not always, the sentence is in favour of the father ; because for the 
 most part commonwealths have been erected by the fathers, not by the 
 mothers of families. But the question lieth now in the state of mere 
 nature ; where there are supposed no laws of matrimony ; no laws for the 
 education of children ; but the law of Nature, and the natural inclination of 
 the sexes, one to another, and to their children. In this condition of mere 
 nature, either the parents between themselves dispose of the dominion over 
 the child by contract ; or do not dispose thereof at all. If they dispose 
 thereof, the right passeth according to the contract. We find in history 
 that the Amazons contracted with the men of the neighbouring countries, 
 to whom they had recourse for issue, that the issue male should be sent 
 back, but the female remain with themselves : so that the dominion of the 
 females was in the mother. 
 
 If there be no contract, the dominion is in the mother. For in the con- 
 dition of mere nature, where there are no matrimonial laws, it cannot be 
 known who is the father, unless it be declared by the mother : and there- 
 fore the right of dominion over the child dependeth on her will, and is 
 consequently hers. Again, seeing the infant is first in the power of the 
 mother, so as she may either nourish or expose it ; if she nourish it, it 
 oweth its life to the mother ; and is therefore obliged to obey her, rather 
 than any other ; and by consequence the dominion over it is hers. But if 
 she expose it, and another find and nourish it, the dominion is in him that 
 nourisheth it. For it ought to obey him by whom it is preserved ; because 
 preservation of life being the end, for which one man becomes subject to 
 another, every man is supposed to promise obedience to him, in whose 
 power it is to save, or destroy him. 
 
 If the mother be the father's subject, the child is in the father's power: 
 and if the father be the mother's subject, as when a sovereign queen 
 marrieth one of her subjects, the child is subject to the mother; because 
 the father also is her subject. 
 
 If a man and woman, monarchs of two several kingdoms, have a child, 
 and contract concerning who shall have the dominion of him, the right of 
 the dominion passeth by the contract. If they contract not, the dominion 
 followeth the dominion of the place of his residence. For the soverei- '~ ui 
 each country hath dominion over all that reside therein. 
 
DOMINION PATERNAL, ETC. 9? 
 
 Me that hath the dominion over the child, hath dominion also over 
 the children of the child ; and over their children's children. For he that 
 hath dominion over the person of a man, hath dominion over all that is 
 his ; without whicli, dominion were but a title, without the effect. 
 
 The right of succession to paternal dominion, proceedeth in the same 
 manner as doth the right of succession of monarchy ; of which I have 
 already sufficiently spoken in the precedent chapter. 
 
 Dominion acquired by conquest, or victory in war, is that which some 
 writers call " despotical," from Aeffiririjs, which signifieth a " lord," or 
 "master;" and is the dominion of the master over his servant. And this 
 dominion is then acquired to the victor, when the vanquished, to a.void the 
 r''°'ifTit 'jfrnl^y nf rjfnfjij t'fypiTgntath either in express words,' or by other 
 sufficient signs of the will, that so long as his life and the liberty of his 
 body is allowed him, the victor shall have the use thereof, at his pleasure. 
 And after such covenant made, the vanquished is a "servant," and not 
 before: for by the word "servant," whether it be derived from servire, 
 to serve, or from servare, to save, which I leave to grammarians to 
 dispute, is not meant a captive, which is kept in prison or bonds, till the 
 owner of hira that took him, or bought him of one that did, shall consider 
 what to do \vith him : for such men, commonly called slaves, have no 
 obligation at all ; but may break their bonds or the prison ; and kill, 01 
 carry away captive their master, justly : but one, that being taken, hath 
 corporal liberty allowed him ; and upon promise not to run away, nor to do 
 violence to his master, is trusted by him. 
 
 It is not th erefore the victory that giveth the right of dominion over the 
 vanquTshed^TiUt his own covenant.' Nor IsTie obliged because he is con- 
 quered ; that is to sa^^eaten and taken, or put to flight ; but because he 
 Cometh in and submitteth to the victor ; nor is the victor obliged by an 
 enemy's rendering himself without promise of life, to spare him for this his 
 yielding to discretion, which obliges not the victor longer than in his own 
 discretion he shall think fit. 
 
 And that which men do when they demand, as it is now called, 
 "quarter," which the Greeks called Z&iy/jia, "taking alive," is to evade 
 the present fury of the victor by submission, and to compound for their life 
 with ransom, or service ; and therefore he that hath quarter, hath not his 
 life given, but deferred till farther deliberation ; for it is not a yielding on 
 condition of life, but to discretion. And then only is his life in security, 
 and his service due, when the victor hath trusted him with his corporal 
 liberty. For slaves that work in prisons, or fetters, do it not of duty, but 
 to avoid the cruelty of their taskmasters. 
 
 The master of the servant is master also of all he hath, and may exact 
 the use thereof, that is to say, of his goods, of his labour, of his servants, 
 and of his children, so often as he shall tliink fit. For lie holdeth his life 
 of his master by the covenant of obedience ; that is, of owning and 
 authorizing whatsoever the master shall do. And in case the master, if he 
 refuse, kill him, or cast him into bonds, or otherwise punish him for his 
 disobedience, he is himself the author of the same, and cannot accuse him 
 of injury. 
 
 In sum, the rights and consequences of both "paternal" and "despoti- 
 cal" dominion, are the very same with those of a sovereign by institution ; 
 and for the same reasons : which reasons ar» set down in the precedent 
 chapter. So that for a man that is monarch of divers nations, whereof he 
 hath in one the sovereignty by institution of the people assembled, and 
 in another by conquest, that is by the submission of each particular, to 
 avoid death or bonds ; to demand of one nation more than of the other 
 fcoin the title of conquest, as being a conquered nation, is an act of 
 
 D 
 
98 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 ignorance of the rights of sovereignty ; for the sovereign is absolute over 
 both alike, or else there is no sovereignty at all; and so every man may 
 lawfully protect himself, if he can, with his own sword, which is the con- 
 dition of vpar. 
 
 By this it appears that a great family, if it be not part of some common- 
 wealth, is of itself, as to the rights of sovereignty, a little monarchy ; 
 whether that family consist of a man and his children, or of a man and his 
 servants ; or of a man, and his children and servants together, wherein the 
 father or master is the sovereign. But yet a family is not properly a com- 
 monwealth, unless it be of that power by its ovm number, or by other 
 opportunities, as not to be subdued without the hazard of war. For where 
 a number of men are manifestly too weak to defend themselves united, 
 every one may use his own reason in time of danger to save his own life, 
 either by flight or by submission to the enemy, as he shall think best ; in the 
 saine manner as a very small company of soldiers, surprised by an army, 
 may cast down their arms and demand quarter, or run away, rather than be 
 put to the sword. And thus much shall suffice concerning what I find by 
 speculation, and deduction of sovereign rights, from the nature, need, and 
 , designs of men, in erecting of commonwealths, and putting themselves 
 under monarchs, or assemblies entrusted with power enough for their 
 1? protection, 
 .(.'■""■'^l.et us now consider what the Scripture teacheth in the same point. To 
 ^' ^Moses, the children of Israel say thus : " Speak thou to us, and we will 
 [ hear thee ; but let not God speak to us, lest we die" (Exod, xx. 19). This 
 ^. >, is absolute obedience to Moses. Concerning the right of kings, God Him- 
 \ self by the mouth of Samuel, saith (i Sam. viii. 1 1, iz, &c.) : " This shall be 
 , ^ the right of the king you will have to reign over you. He shall take your 
 sons, and set them to drive his chariots, and to be his horsemen, and to run 
 Y before his chariots j and gather in his harvest ; and to make his engines of 
 c war, and instruments of his chariots ; and shall take your daughters to 
 '' make perfumes, to be his cooks, and bakers. He shall take your fields, 
 your vineyards, and your olive yards, and give them to his servants. He 
 shall take the tithe of your corn and wine, and give it to the men of his 
 chamber, and to his other servants. He shall take your manservants and 
 your maidservants, and the choice of your youth, and employ them in his 
 business. He shall take the tithe of your flocks, and you shall be his ser- 
 vants." This is absolute power, and summed up in the last words, " you 
 shall be his servants." Again, when the people heai-d what power their king 
 was to have, yet they consented thereto, and say thus (verse 10) : " We will 
 be as all other nations, and our king shall judge our causes, and go before 
 us, to conduct our wars." Here is confirmed the right that sovereigns have 
 both to tlie "militia" and to all "judicature;" in which is contained as 
 absolute power as one man can possibly transfer to another. Again, the 
 prayer of king Solomon to God was this (I Kings iii. 9): "Give to tliy 
 
 and therefore in him is the legislative power. Saul sought the life of 
 David ; yet when it was in his power to slay Saul, and his servants would 
 have done it, David forbad them, saying (i Sam. xxiv. 6) : "God forbid I 
 should do such an act against my lord, the anointed of God." For 
 obedience of servants St. Paul saith (Col. iii. 22) ! " Servants obey your 
 masters in all things ; " and (Col. iii. 20) : " Children obey your parents 
 in all things." There is simple obedience in those that are subject to 
 paternal or despotical dominion. Again (Malt, xxiii. 2, 3) : " The Scribes 
 and Pharisees sit in Moses' chair, and therefore all that they shall bid you 
 
DOMINION PATERNAL, ETC. 99 
 
 observe, that observe and do. " There again is simple obedience, And 
 St. Paul (Titus iiL 2) : " Warn them that they subject themselves to 
 princes, and to those that are in authority, and obey them." This obe- 
 dience is also simple. Lastly, our Saviour Himself acknowledges, that 
 men ought to pay such taxes as are by kings imposed, where he says, " Give 
 to Csesar that which is Csesar's ; " and paid such taxes Himself. And that 
 the king's word is sufficient to take anything from any subject, when there 
 is need ; and that the king is judge of that need, for He Himself, as 
 king of the Jews, commanded His disciples to take the ass, and ass's 
 colt, to carry Him into Jerusalem, saying (Matt. xxi. 2, 3) : "Go into the 
 village over against you, and you shall find a she-ass tied, and her colt with 
 her ; untie them, and bring them to me. And if any man ask you what 
 you mean by it, say the Lord hath need of them : and they will let them 
 go." They will not ask whether His necessity be a sufficient title ; nor 
 whether He be judge of that necessity ; but acquiesce in the will of the 
 Lord. 
 
 To these places may be added also that of Genesis (iii. 5): "Ye shall 
 be as gods, knowing good and evil," And (verse II) : "Who told thee that 
 thou wast naked? hast thou eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee 
 thou shouldest not eat ? " For the cognizance or judicature of "good " and 
 " evil," being forbidden by the name of the firuit of the tree of knowledge, 
 as a trial of Adam's obedience ; the devil to inflame the ambition of the 
 w Oman, to whom that fruit already seemed beautiful, told her that by tasting 
 it they should be as gods, knowing "good" and "evil." Whereupon 
 having both eaten, they did indeed take upon them God's office, which is 
 judicature of good and evil ; but acquired no new ability to distinguish 
 between them aright. And whereas it is said, that having eaten, they saw 
 they were naked ; no man hath so interpreted that place, as if they had been 
 formerly blind, and saw not their own skins: the meaning is plain, that it 
 was then they first judged their nakedness, wherein it was 'God's will 
 to create them, to be uncomely ; and by being ashamed, did tacitly censure 
 God Himself. And thereupon God saith: "Hast thou eaten, &c.," as if He 
 should say, doest thou that owest me obedience, take upon thee to judge of 
 my commandments ? Whereby it is clearly, though allegorically, signified 
 that the commands of them that have the right to command; are jjot 
 by their subjects to be censured noi; disputed. 
 
 So that it appeareth plainly, to my understanding, both from reason and 
 Scripture, that the sovereign power, whether placed in one man, as 
 in monarchy, or in one assembly of men, as in popular and aristocratical 
 commonwealths, is as great as possibly men can be imagined to make it. 
 And though of so unlimited a power, men may fancy many evil con- 
 sequences, yet the consequences of the want of it, which is perpetual war 
 of every man against his neighbour, are much woi-se. The condition of man 
 in this life shall never be without inconveniences | but there happeneth in no 
 commonwealth any great inconvenience but what proceeds from the subject's 
 disobedience, and breach of those covenants, from which the common- 
 wealth has its being. And whosoever thinking sovereign power too great, 
 will seek to make it less, must subject himself to the power that can limit 
 it ; that is to say, to a greater. 
 
 The greatest objection is, that of the practice ; when men ask where and 
 when such power has by subjects been acknowledged. But one may ask 
 them again, when or where has there been a kingdom long free from 
 sedition and civil war. In those nations whose commonwealths have been 
 long-lived, and not being destroyed but by foreign war, the subjects never 
 did dispute of the sovereign power. But howsoever, an argument from the 
 practice of men, that have not sifted to the bottom, and with exact reason 
 
 D2 
 
100 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 weighed tlie causes and natare of commonwealths, and suffer daily those 
 miseries that proceed from the ignorance thereof, is invalid. For though in 
 all places of the world men should lay the foundation of their houses on the 
 sand, it could not thence be inferred that so it ought to be. The skill of 
 making and maintaining commonwealths, consisteth in certain rules, as 
 doth arithmetic and geometry; not, as tennis-play, on practice only : lyhich 
 rules neither poor men have the leisure, nor men that have had the leisure, 
 have hitherto had the curiosity, or the method to find out. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Of the Liberty of Subjects. 
 
 Liberty, or " freedom," signifieth, properly, the absence of oppo- 
 sition ; by opposition, I mean external impediments of motion ; and may be 
 applied no less to irrational and inanimate creatures than to rational. For 
 ■whatsoever is so tied, or environed, as it cannot move but within a certain 
 space, which space is determined by the opposition of some external body, 
 ■we say it hath not liberty to go further. And so of all living creatures 
 whilst they are imprisoned, or restrained, with walls or chains ; and of the 
 water whilst it is kept in by banks or vessels, that otherwise would spread 
 itself into a larger space, we use to say, they are not at liberty to liiove in 
 such manner, as without those external impediments they would. But when 
 the impediment of motion is in the constitution of the thing itself, we use 
 hot to say, it wants the liberty, but the power to move ; as when a stone 
 lieth still, or a man is fastened to his bed by sickness. 
 
 And according to this proper and generally received meaning of the 
 word, a "freeman, is he, that in those things, which by his strength and 
 wit he is able to do, is not hindered to do what he has a will to. " But 
 when the words "free," and "liberty," are applied to anything but 
 " bodies," they are abused ; for that which is not subject to motion, is not 
 subject to impediment ; and therefore, when it is said for example, the way 
 s free, no liberty of the way is signified, but of those that walk in it without 
 stop. And when we say a gift is free, there is not meant any liberty of the 
 gift, but of the giver, that was not bound by any law or covenant to give 
 it. So when we " speak freely," it is not the liberty of voice, or pronun- 
 ciation, but of the man, whom no law hath obliged to speak otherwise than 
 he did. Lastly, from the use of tlie word "free-will," no liberty can 
 be inferred of the will, desire, or inclination, but the liberty of the man ; 
 which consisteth in this, that he finds no stop, in doing what he has the 
 will, desire, or inclination to do. 
 
 Fear and liberty are consistent ; as when a man throweth his goods into 
 the sea for " fear " the ship should sink, he doth it nevevthele'is very 
 willingly, and may refuse to do it if he will : it is therefore the action of 
 one that was " free ;" so a man sometimes pays his debt, only for " fear " 
 of imprisonment, which because nobody hindered him from detaining, was 
 the action of a man at "liberty." And generally all actions which men do 
 in commonwealths, for " fear " of the law, are actions which the doers had 
 " liberty " to omit. 
 
 " Liberty " and " necessity " are consistent, as in the water that hath not 
 only " liberty," but a "necessity " of descending by the channel ; so like- 
 wise in the actions which men voluntarily do : which, because they proceed 
 from their will, proceed from "hberty;" and yet, because every act cf 
 
OF THE LIBERTY OF SUBJECTS. ^ ^- ipi 
 
 man's will, and every desire and inclinajion proceedetHTftom sonVe cause, 
 and that from another cause, in a continual chain, whose first link is in the 
 hand of God the first of all causes, proceed from " necessity." So that to 
 him that could see the connection of those causes, the "necessity" of all 
 men's voluntary aclion-i would appear manifest. And therefore God, that 
 seelh and disposeth all things, seelh also that the " liberty " of man \ 
 in-doing what he will, is accompanied with the "necessity " of doing that 
 which God will, and no more nor less. For though men may do many J 
 things which God does not command, nor is therefore author of them; \ 
 yet they can have no passion, nor appetite to anything, of which appetite i 
 God's will is not the cause. And did not His will assure the " necessity" pf jf 
 man's will, and consequently of all that on man's will dependeth, the (f 
 "liberty" of men would 'be u contradiction, and impediment to ihe^ 
 omnipotence and " liberty " of God. And this shall suffice, as to the 
 matter in hand, of that natural "liberty," which only is properly called 
 "liberty." 
 
 But as men, for the attaining of peace, and conservation of themselves 
 thereby, have made an artificial man, which we call a commonwealth ; so 
 also have they made artificial chains, called " civil laws," which they them- 
 selves, by mutual covenants, have fastened at one end, to the lips of that 
 man, or assembly, to whom they have given the sovereign power ; and at 
 the other end to their own ears. These bonds, in their own nature but 
 weak, may nevertheless be made to hold, by the danger, though not by the 
 difficulty of breaking them. 
 
 In relation to these bonds only it is, that I am to speak now, of the 
 "liberty" of "subjects." For seeing there is no commonwealth in the 
 world, wherein there be rules enough set down for the regulating of all the 
 actions and words of men, as being <i thing impossible ; it foUoweth •' 
 necessarily, that in all kinds of actions by the laws pretermitted, men 
 liave the liberty of doing what their own reasons shall suggest, for the 
 most profitable to themselves. For if we take liberty in the proper sense, 
 for corporal liberty ; that is to say, freedom from chains and prison ; it 
 were very absurd for men to clamour as they do for the liberty they so 
 manifestly enjoy. Again, if we take liberty for an exemption from laws, it 
 is no less absurd for men to demand as they do that liberty by which all 
 other men may be masters of their lives. And yet, as absurd as it is, this 
 is it they demand ; not knowing that the laws are of no power to protect 
 them, without a sword in the hands of a man, or men, to cause those laws 
 to be put in execution. The liberty of a subject lieth therefore only in ( 
 those things which in regulating their actions, the sovereign hath preter- \ 
 mitted : such as is the liberty to buy and sell, and otherwise contract with ' 
 one another ; to choose their own abode, their own diet, their own trade of 
 life, and institute their children as they themselves think fit ; and the like. 
 
 Nevertheless we are not to understand, that by such liberty, the sovereign 
 
 power of life and death is either abolished or limited. For it has been 
 
 , already shown, that nothing the sovereign representative can do to a sub- 
 
 i ject, on what pretence soever, can properly be called injustice or injury ; 
 
 ■ because every subject is author of every act the sovereign doth ; so that he 
 
 never wanteth right to anything, otherwise, than as he himself is thesubject of 
 
 God, and bound thereby to observe the laws of Nature. And therefore it 
 
 maK._and dot h often happe n in commonggalths, that a subject may be put 
 
 to death bytKe command of the^ overeign powg|r ; and yet neitiier do the 
 
 bfTier'wron^'ars""wIiiSr"JepKtlia" caused his daughter to be sacrificed; in 
 
 which, and the like cases, he that so dieth, had liberty to do the action, for 
 
 which he is nevertheless without injury put to death; And the same 
 
 holdeth also in a sovereign prince that putteth to death an innocent subject. 
 
103 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 For though the action be against the law of Nature, as being contrary to 
 equity, as was the killing of Uriah, by David ; yet it was not an injury to 
 Uriah, but to God. Not to Uriah, because the right to do what he pleased 
 was given liim by Uriah himself: and yet to God, because David was God's 
 subject, and prohibited all iniquity by the law of Nature : which distinc- 
 iion, David himself, when he repented the fact, evidently confirmed, saying, 
 " To thee only have I sinned." In the same manner the people of Athens, 
 when they banished the most potent of their commonwealth for ten years, 
 thought they committed no injustice ; and yet they never questioned what 
 crime he had done ; but what hurt he would do : nay they commanded the 
 banishment of they knew not whom ; and every citizen bringing his oyster- 
 shell into the market-place, written with the name of him he desired should 
 be banished, without actually accusing him, sometimes banished an Aristides, 
 for his reputation of justice ; and sometimes a scurrilous jester, as Hyper- 
 bolus, to make a jest of it. And yet a man cannot say, the sovereign people 
 of Athens wanted right to banish them ; or an Athenian the liberty to jest 
 or to be just. 
 
 The liberty, whereof there is so frequent and honourable mention in the 
 histories and philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and in the 
 writings and discourse of those that from them have received all their learn- 
 ing in the politics, is not the liberty of particular men,;_but the liberty of 
 the commonwealth : whicE~is The~same with that which every man then 
 shouldTiaveiinhere were no civil laws; nor commonwealth at all. And> 
 the effects of it also be the same. For as amongst masterless men there is 
 perpetual war, of every man against his neighbour ; no inheritance, to trans- 
 mit to the son, nor to expect from the father ; no propriety of goods, or 
 lands ; no security ; but a full and absolute liberty in every particular man : 
 so in states and commonwealths not dependent on one another, every 
 commonwealth, not every man, has an absolute liberty to do what it shall 
 judge, that is to say, what that man, or assembly that represgnteth" it, shall 
 judge most conducing to their benefit. But withal, they live in the con. 
 dition of a pepetual war, and upon the confines of battle, with their frontiers 
 armed, and cannons planted against their neighbours round about. The 
 Athenians and Romans were free ; that is, free commonwealtlis : not 
 that any particular men had the liberty to resist their own representative ; 
 but that their representative had the liberty to resist, or invade other people. 
 There is written on the turrets of the city of Lucca, in great characters, at 
 this day, the word " Libertas ;" yet no man can thence infer, that a par- 
 ticular man has more liberty, or immunity from the service of the common- 
 wealth there, than in Constantinople. Whether a. commonwealth be 
 monarchical, or popular, the freedom is still the same. 
 
 But it is an easy thing for men to be deceived by the specious name of 
 liberty ; and for want of judgment to distinguish, mistake that for their 
 private inheritance and birthright, which is the right of the public only. 
 And when the same error is confirmed by the authority of men in reputation 
 for their writings on this subject, it is no wonder if it produce sedition, and 
 change of government. In these western parts of the world, we are madf 
 to receive our opinions concerning the institution and rights of common- 
 wealths, from Aristotle, Cicero, and other men, Greeks and Romans, that 
 living under popular states, derived tiiose rights, not from the principles of 
 Nature, but transcribed them into their books, out of the practice of iheit 
 own commonwealths, which were popular ; as 'the grammarians describe the 
 rules of language out of the practice of the time ; or the rules of-poetry out of 
 the poems of Homer and Virgil. And because the Athenians were taught 
 to keep them from desire of changing their government, that they were 
 free men, and all that lived under monarchy were slaves ; therefore Aristotle 
 
OF THE LIBERTY OF SUBJECTS. 103 
 
 put it down in his " Politics " (lib. 6, cap. ii.) : "In democracy, ' liberty'' 
 is to be supposed : for it is commonly held, that no man is 'free' in any 
 other government." And as Aristotle, so Cicero and other writers have 
 grounded their civil doctrine on the opinions of the Romans, who were 
 taught to hate monarchy, at first, by them that having deposed their 
 sovereign, shared amongst them the sovereignty of Rome ; and afterwards 
 by their successors. And by reading of these Greek and Latin authors, 
 men from their childhood have gotten a habit, under a false show of liberty, 
 of favouring tumults, and of licentious controlling the actions of their 
 sovereigns, and again of controlling those controllers ; with the effusion of 
 so much blood, as I think I may truly say, there was never anything so 
 dearly bought as these western parts have bought the learning of the Greek 
 and Latin tongues. , 
 
 To come now to the particulars of the true liberty of a subject ; that is to 
 say, what are the things, which though commanded by the sovereign, he 
 may nevertheless, without injustice, refuse to do ; we are to consider 
 what rights we pass away, when we malie a commonwealth ; or, which 
 is all one, what liberty- we deny ourselves, by owning all the actions, 
 without exception, of the" man, or assembly, we make our sovereign. 
 For in the act of our "submission," consisteth both our "obligation," 
 and our " liberty ; " which must therefore be inferred by arguments taken 
 from thence ; there being no obligation on any man, which ariseth not 
 from some act of his own ; for all men equally, are by Nature free. And 
 because such arguments must either be drawn from the express words, I 
 "authorize all his actions," or from the intention of him that submitteth 
 himself to his power, whicli intention is to be understood by the end for 
 which he so submitteth ; the obligation and liberty of the subject, is to be 
 derived, either from those words, or others equivalent ; or else from the 
 end of the institution of sovereignty, namely, the peace of the subjects 
 within themselves, and their defence against a common enemy. 
 
 First therefore, seeing sovereignty by institution, is by covenant of every 
 one to every one ; and sovereignty by acquisition, by covenants of the van- 
 quished to the victor, or child to the parent ; it is manifest, that every 
 subj ect has liberty in all those thin g s, the right wh ereof cannot bjTcS^lnant 
 be transterreci. 1 have shown before in~?he I4t'h chapter, that covenants, 
 not to defend a: man's own body, are void. Tlierefore, 
 
 If the sovereign command a man, though justly condemned, to kill, 
 wound, or maim himself ; or not to resist these that assault him ; or to 
 abstain from the use of food, air, medicine, or any other things without 
 which he cannot live ; yet hatlr that man the liberty to disobey. 
 
 If a man be interrogated by the sovereign, or his authority, concerning a 
 crime done by himself, he is not bound, without assurance of pardon, to 
 confess it ; because Dojnau; as I have shown in the same chapter, can-be 
 o bliged te.cgveBanf .to accuse hims elf. 
 
 Again,Tfie''conSSht'ol"a subject to sovereign power, is contained in these 
 words, " I authorize, or take upon me, all his actions ; " in which there is 
 no restriction at all, of his own former natural liberty : for by allowing 
 him to "kill me," I am not bound to kill myself when he commands 
 me. It is one thing to say, "kill me, or my fellow, if you please;" 
 another thing to say, " I will kill myself, or my fellow." It foUoweth 
 therefore, that 
 
 No man is bound by the words themselves, either to kill himself, or any 
 
 ' other man ; and consequently, that the obligation a man may sometimes 
 
 have, upon the command of the sovereign to execute any dangerous 
 
 or dishonourable office, dependeth not on the words of our submission ; 
 
 but on the intention, which is to be understood by the . end thereof. 
 
104 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 When therefore our refusal to obey, frustrates the end for whlcii the I 
 sovereignty was ordained ; then there is no liberty to refuse : otherwise 
 there is. 
 
 Upon this ground, a man that is commanded as a soldier to fight against 
 the enemy, though liis sovereign have right enough to punish his refusal 
 with death, may nevertheless in many cases refuse, without inju!^tice ; as 
 V when he substituteth a sufficient soldier in his place : for in this case he de- 
 serteth not the service of the commonwealth. And there is allowance tp 
 be made for natural timorousness ; not only to women, of whom no such 
 dangerous duty is expected, but also to men of feminine courage. When 
 armies fight, there is on one side, or both, a running away ; yet when they 
 do it not out of treachery, but fear, they are not esteemed to do it unjustly, 
 but dishonourably. For the same reason, to avoid battle, is not injustice, 
 but cowardice. But he that enioUeth himself a soldier, or taketh impressed 
 money, taketh away the excuse of = timorous nature ; and is obliged, not 
 only to go to the battle, but also not to run from it, without his captain's 
 leave. And when the defence of the commonwealth requireth at once the 
 help of all that are able to bear arms, every one is obliged ; because other- 
 wise the institution of the commonwealth, which lliey have not the purpose 
 or courage to preserve, was in vain. 
 
 To resist the sword of the commonwealth in defence of another man, 
 "guilty or innocent, no man hath liberty ; because such liberty takes away 
 from the sovereign the means of protecting us ; and is therefore destructive 
 of the very essence of government. But in case a great many men together 
 have already resisted the sovereign power unjustly, or committed some 
 capital crime for which every one of them expecteth death, whether have 
 they not the liberty then to join together, and assist and defend one 
 another? Certainly they have ; for they but defend their lives, which the 
 guilty man may as well do as the innocent. There was indeed injustice in 
 the first breach of their duty ; their bearing of arms subsequent to it, though 
 it be to maintain what they have done, is no new unjust act. And if it be 
 only to defend their persons, it is not unjust at all. But the offer of pardon 
 taketh from them to whom it is offered the plea of self-defence, and maketh 
 their perseverance in assisting or defending the rest unlawful. 
 , , As for other liberties, they depend on the silence of the law. In cases 
 where the sovereign has prescribed no rale, there the subject hath the 
 liberty to do, or forbear, according to his own discretion. And therefore 
 such liberty is in some places more, and in some less ; and in some times 
 more, in other times less, according as they that have the sovereignty shall 
 think most convenient. As for example, there was a time when, in 
 England, u man might enter into his own land, and dispossess such as 
 wrongfully possessed it, by force. But in aftertimes, that liberty of 
 forcible entry was taken away by a statute made by the king in parlia- 
 ( I ment. And in some places of the world, men have the liberty of many 
 wives ; in other places such liberty is not allowed. 
 
 If a subject have a controversy with his sovereign, of debt, or of right of 
 possession of lands or goods, or concerning any service required at his 
 hands, or concerning any penalty, corporal or pecuniary, grounded on a 
 precedent law ; he hath the same liberty to sue for his right as if it were 
 agaiiiat a subject, and before such judges as are appointed by the sovereign. 
 For seeing the sovereign demandeth by force of a former law, and not by 
 virtue of his power ; he declareth thereby that he requireth no more than 
 shall appear to be due by that law. The suit therefore is not contrary to 
 the will of the sovereign ; and consequently the subject hath the liberty to 
 demand the hearing of his cause ; and sentence, according to that law. 
 But if he demand, or take anything by pretence of his power there lieth, 
 
OF THE LIBERTY OF SUBJECTS. 105 
 
 in that case, no action of law ; for all that is done by him in virtue-oUiis 
 
 Eower, is done by the authonty^££.very._suhject, and consequently he that 
 liiigs an actioir^^ttlgt the" sovereign, brings it against himself. 
 
 If a monarch, or sovereign assembly, grant a liberty to all or any of his 
 subjects, which grant standing, he is disabled to provide for their safety, 
 the grant is void, unless he directly renounce or transfer the sovereignty to 
 another. For in that he might openly, if it had been his will, and in plain 
 terms, have renounced or transferred it, and did not ; it is to be understood 
 it was not his will, but that the grant proceeded from ignorance of the 
 repugnancy between such a liberty and the sovereign power, and therefore 
 the sovereignty is still retained ; and consequently all those powers, which 
 are necessary to the exercising thereof ; such as are the power of war and 
 peace, of judicature, of appointing officers and councillors, of levying 
 money, and the rest named in the l8th chapter. 
 
 The obligation of subjects to the sovereign is understood to last as long, 
 '' and no longer, than the power lasteth by which he is able to protect them. 
 I'or the right men have by nature to protect themselves, when none else 
 can protect them, can by no covenant be relinquished. The sovereignty is 
 the soul of the commonwealth, which once departed from the body, the 
 members do no more receive their motion from it. The end of obedience 
 is protection, which, wheresoever a man seeth it, either in his own or in 
 another's sword, nature applieth his obedience to it, and his endeavour to 
 maintain it. And though sovereignty, in the intention of them that make 
 it, be immortal, yet is it in its own nature not only subject to violent 
 death by foreign war, but also, through the ignorance and passions of men, 
 it hath in it, from the very institution, many seeds of a natural mortality, by 
 intestine discord. 
 
 If a subject be taken prisoner in war, or his person, or his means of life 
 be within the guards of the enemy, and hath his life and corporal liberty 
 given him on condition to be subject to the victor, he hath liberty to accept 
 the condition ; and having accepted it, is the subject of him that took him, 
 because he had no other way to preserve himself. The case is the same, if | 
 he be detained on the same terms, in a foreign country. But if a man be 
 held in prison, or bonds, or is not trusted with the liberty of his body, he 
 cannot be understood to be bound by covenant to subjection ; and therefore 
 may, if he can, make his escape by any means whatsoever. 
 
 If a monarch shall relinquish the sovereignty, both for himself and his 
 heirs, his subjects return to the absolute libert of rature ; bf tause, though 
 nature may declare who are his sons, and who are the nearest of his kin, 
 yet it dependeth on his own will, as hatli been said in tlie precedent 
 chapter, who shall be his heir. If therefore he will have no heir, there is 
 nd sovereignly, nor subjection. The case is tlie same if he die without 
 known kindred, and without declaration of his heir. For then there can 
 no heir be known, and consequently no subjection be due. 
 
 If the sovereign banish his subject, during the banishment he is not sub- 
 ject. But he that is sent on a message, or hath leave to travel, is still 
 subject ; but it is, by contract between sovereigns, not by virtue of tlie 
 covenant of subjection. For whosoever entereth into another's dominion, 
 is subject to all the laws thereof, unless he have a privilege by the amity of 
 the sovereigns, or by special license. 
 
 If a monarch subdued by war render himself subject to the victor, his 
 subjects are delivered from their former obligation, and become obhged to 
 the victor. But if he be held prisoner, or have not the liberty of his own 
 body, he is not understood to have given away the right of sovereignty ; 
 and therefore his subjects are obliged to yield obedience to the magistrates 
 formerly placed, governing not in their own name, but in his, for, his 
 
io6 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 light remaining, the question is only of the administration ; that is to say, 
 of the magistrates and officers, which, i£ we have not means to name, he 
 is supposed to approve those which he himself had formerly appointed. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Of Systems Subject, Political, and Private. 
 
 Having spoken of the generation, form, and power of a commonwealth, I 
 am in order to speak next of the parts thereof. And first of systems which 
 resemble the similar parts, or muscles of a body natural. By "systems, "I 
 imderstand any numbers of men joined in one interest, or one business. Of 
 which, some are "regular," and some "irregular." "Regular" are those 
 where one man, or assembly of men, is constituted representative of the 
 whole number. All other are " irregular." 
 
 Of regular some are " absolute " and "independent,' subject to none but 
 their own representative : such are only commonwealths ; of which I liave 
 spoken already in the five last precedent chapters. Others are dependent ; 
 tliat is to say, subordinate to some sovereign power, to which every one, as 
 also their representative is " subject." 
 
 Of systems subordinate, some are "political," and some "private." 
 " Political,'' otherwise called "bodies politic," and " persons in law," are 
 those which are made by authority from the sovereign power of the common- 
 wealth. " Private," are those which are 'constituted by subjects amongst 
 themselves, or by authority from a stranger. For no authority derived from 
 foreign power within the dominion of another, is public there, but private. 
 
 And of private systems, some are "lawful:" some "unlawful." 
 "Lawful," are those /frhich are allowed by the commonwealth: all other 
 are "unlawful." " trregular " systems are those which having no repre- 
 sentative, consist only in concourse of people J which ^if not forbidden by 
 the commonwealth, nor made on evil design, •such as are conflux of people 
 to markets, or shows, or any other harmless end, are lawhil. . But when the 
 intention is evil, or (if the number be considerable) unknown, they are un- 
 lawful. 
 
 In bodies politic, the power of the representative is always limited : and 
 that which prescribeth the limits thereof, is the power sovereign. For power 
 unlimited is absolute sovereignty. And the sovereign in every common- 
 wealth is the absolute representative of all the subjects ; and therefore 
 no other can be representative of any part of them, but so far forth as he 
 shall give leave. And to give leave to a body politic of subjects, to have an 
 absolute representative to all intents and purposes, were to abandon the 
 government of so much of the commonwealth, and to divide the dominion 
 contrary to their peace and defence ; which the sovereign cannot be under- 
 stood to do by any grant that does not plainly and directly discharge them 
 of their subjection. For consequences of words, are not the signs of his 
 will, when other consequences are signs of the contrary ; bnt rather signs 
 of error and misreckoning ; to which all mankind is too prone. 
 
 The bounds of that power, which is given to the representative of a body 
 politic, are to be taken notice of from two things. One is their writ, 
 or letters from the sovereign : the other is the law of the commonwealth. 
 
 For though in the institution or acquisition of a commonwealth, which is 
 independent, there needs no writing, because the power of the representative 
 has there no other bounds, but sue!} as ^re set out by the unwritten law of 
 
 
SYSTEMS SUByECT, POLITICAL, EiTC. 107 
 
 Nature ; yet in subordinate bodies, there are such diversities of limitation 
 necessary concerning their businesses, times, and pkces, as can neither be 
 remembered without letters, nor taken notice of, unless such letters be 
 patent, that they may be read to them, and withal sealed, or testified, with 
 the seals, or other permanent signs of the authority sovereign. 
 
 And "because such limitation is not always easy, or perhaps possible to be 
 described in writing ; the ordinary laws, common to all subjects, must 
 determine what the representative may lawfully do in all cases where the 
 letters themselves are silent. And therefore. 
 
 In a body politic, if the representative be one man, whatsoever he does 
 in the person of the body which is not warranted in his letters, nor by 
 the laws, is his own act, and not the act of the body, nor of any other 
 member thereof besides himself ; because further than his letters, or the 
 law's limit, he representeth no man's person, but his own. But what he 
 does according to these is the act of every one : for the act of the sovereign 
 every one is author, because he is their representative unlimited ; and the 
 act of him that recedes not from the letters of the sovereign, is the act of 
 the sovereign, and therefore every member of the body is author of it. 
 
 But if the repsesentative be an assembly, whatsoever that assembly shall 
 decree, not warranted by their letters or the laws, is the act of the assembly 
 or body politic, and the act of every one by whose vote the decree was 
 made ; but not the act of any man that being present voted to the contrary ; 
 nor of any man absent, unless he voted it by procuration. It is the act of 
 the assembly, because voted by the major part ; and if it be a crime, the 
 assembly may be punished, as far- forth as it is capable, as by dissolution 
 or forfeiture of their letters (which is to such artificial and fictitious bodies 
 capital), or, if the assembly have a common stock, wherein none of the 
 innocent members have propriety, by pecuniary mulct. For from corporal 
 penalties Nature hath' exempted all bodies politic. But they that gave not 
 their vote are therefore innocent, because the assembly cannot represent any 
 man in things unwarranted by their letters, and consequently are not involved 
 in their votes. 
 
 If the person of the body politic, being in one man, borrow money of a 
 stranger, that is, of one that is not of the same body (for no letters need 
 limit borrowing, seeing it is left to men's own inclinations to limit lending), 
 the debt is the representative's. For if he should have authority from his 
 letters to make the members pay what he borroweth, he should have by 
 consequence the sovereignty of them ; and therefore the grant were either 
 void, as proceeding from error, commonly incident to human nahire, and an 
 insufficient sign of the will of the granter ; or if it be avowed by him, then 
 is the representer sovereign, and ifalleth not under the present question, 
 which is only of bodies subordinate. No member therefore is obliged to 
 pay the debt so borrowed, but the representative himself; because he that 
 lendeth it, being a stranger to the letters and to the qualification of the 
 body, understandeth those only for his debtors that are engaged ; and seeing 
 the representer can engage himself and none else, has him only for debtor, 
 who must therefore pay him out of the common stock, if there be any, or, if 
 there be none, out of his own estate. 
 
 If he come into debt by contract 6p>inulct, the case is the same. 
 
 But when the representative is an asSemBly, and the debt to a stranger, 
 all they, and only they, are responsible for the debt that gave their votes to 
 the borrowing of it, or to the contract that made it due, or to the fact for 
 which the mulct was imposed ; because every one in voting did engage 
 himself for the payment ; for he that is author of the borrowing is obliged 
 to the payment, even of the whole debt, though when paid by any one, he 
 be discharged. 
 
loS OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 But if the debt be to one of the assembly, the assembly only is obliged to 
 the payment out of their common stock, if they have any ; for having liberty 
 of vote, if lie vote the money shall be borrowed, he votes it shall be paid ; 
 if he vote it shall not be borrowed, or be absent, yet because in lending he 
 voteth the borrowing, he contradictelh his former vote, and is obli^^ed by 
 the latter, and becomes both borrower and lender, and consequently cannot 
 deirtand payment from any particular man, but from the common trea- 
 sure only ; which failing he hath no remedy nor complaint, but against 
 himself, that being privy to the acts of the assembly, and to their means to 
 pay, and not being enforced, did nevertheless through his owk folly lend his 
 money. 
 
 It is manifest by this, that in bodies politic subordinate, and subject to a 
 sovereign power, it is sometimes not only lawful, but expedient, for 
 a particular man to make open protestation against the decrees of the 
 ■ representative assembly, and cause their dissent to be registered, or to take 
 witness of it ; because otherwise they may be obliged to pay debts 
 contracted, and be responsible for crimes committed by other men. But in 
 a sovereign assembly, that liberty is taken away, both because lie that 
 protesteth there denies their sovereignty ; and also because whatsoever is 
 commanded by the sovereign power, is as to the subject, though not so 
 always in the sight of God, justified by the command : for of such command 
 every subject is the author. 
 
 The variety of bodies politic, is almost infinite : for they are not 
 only distinguished by the several affairs, for which they are constituted, 
 wherein there is an unspeakable diversity ; but also by the times, places, 
 and numbers, subject to many limitations. And as to their affairs, some 
 are ordained JFor government ; as first, the government of a province, may- 
 be committed to an assembly of men, wherein all resolutions shall depend 
 on the votes of the major part ; and then this assembly is a body politic, 
 and their power limited by commission. This word province signifies a 
 charge, or care of busines-^, which he whose business it is, committeth to 
 another man, to be administered for, and under him ; and therefore when 
 in one commonwealth there be divers countries, that have their laws 
 distinct one from another, or are far distant in place, the administration of 
 the government being committed to divers persons, those countries where 
 the sovereign is not resident, but governs by commission, are called 
 provinces. But of the government of a province, by an assembly residing 
 in the province itself, there be few examples. The Romans, who had the 
 sovereignty of many provinces, yet governed them always by presidents 
 and praetors ; and hot by assemblies, as they governed the city of Rome, 
 and territories adjacent. In like manner, when there were colonies sent 
 from England, to plant Virginia and Sommer Islands, though the govern- 
 ments of them here were committed to assemblies in London, yet did those 
 assemblies never commit the government under them to any assembly there, 
 but did to each plantation send one governor. For though every man, 
 where he can be present by nature, desires to participate of government ; 
 yet where they cannot be present, they are by nature also inclined to 
 commit the government of their common interest rather to a monarchical 
 than a popular form of government : which is also evident in those men 
 that have great private estates ; who when they are unwilling to take the 
 pains of adminis'tering the business that belongs to them, choose rather to 
 trust one servant, than an assembly either of their friends or servants. But 
 howsoever it be in fact, yet we may suppose the government of a province or 
 colony committed to an assembly : and when it is, that which in this place I 
 liave to say, is this; that whatsoever debt is by that assembly contracted; or 
 whatsoever unlawful act is decreed, is the act only of those that assented, and 
 
SYSTEMS SUBJECT, POLITICAL, ETC. 109 
 
 not of any that dissented, or were absent, for the reasons before alleged. Also 
 that an assembly residing out of the bounds of that colony whereof they 
 have the government, cannot execute any power over the persons or goods 
 of any of the colony, to seize on them for debt, or other duty,. in any place 
 without the colony itself, as having no jurisdiction, nor authority elsewhere, 
 but are left to the remedy which the law of the place alloweth them. 
 And though the assembly have right to impose a mulct upon any of their 
 members that shall break the laws they make ; yet out of the colony itself, 
 they have no right to execute the same. And that which is said here of the 
 rights of an assembly, for the government of a province or a colony, is 
 appliable also to an assembly for the government of a town, an university, 
 or a college, or a church, or for any other government over the persons of 
 men. 
 
 And generally, in all bodies politic, if any particular member conceive 
 himself injured by the body itself, the cognizance of his cause belongeth to 
 the sovereign, and those the sovereign hath ordained for judges in such 
 causes, or shall ordain for that particular cause ; and not to the body itself. 
 For ^the whole body is in this case' his felIow-su^ect»- which in-a sovereign 
 asjembbMs otherwise : for there, if the sovereign be not judge^ thougkinhis 
 own cause,^ fftere tan be ho judge at alj. 
 
 In a "BoSy' politic, for the well ordering of foreign traffic, the most com- 
 modious representative is an assembly of all the members ; that is to say, 
 such a one, as every one that adventureth his money, may be present at all 
 the deliberations and resolutions of the body, if they will themselves. For 
 proof whereof, we are to consider the end, for which men that are merchants, 
 and may buy and sell, export and import their merchandize, according to 
 their own discretions, do nevertheless bind themselves up in one corporation. 
 It is true, there be few merchants, that with the merchandize they buy at 
 home, can freight a ship, to export it ; or with that they buy abroad, to 
 bring it home ; and have therefore need to join together in one society ; 
 where every man may either participate of the gain, according to the pro- 
 portion of his adventure ; or take his own, and sell what he transports, or 
 imports, at such prices as he thinks fit. But this is no body politic, there 
 being no common representative to oblige them to any other law than that 
 which is common to all other subjects. The end of their incorporating, is 
 to make their gain the greater ; which is done two ways ; by sole buying 
 and sole selling, both at home and abroad. So that to grant to a company 
 of merchants to be a corporation, or body politic, is to grant them a double 
 pinaaopoly, whereof one is to be sole buyers ; another to be sole sellers. 
 / For when there is a company incorporate for any particular foreign country, 
 '.they only export the commodities vendible in that country ; which is sole 
 
 [buying at home and sole selling abroad. For at home there is but one 
 buyer and abroad but one that selleth : both which is gainful to the mer- 
 chant, because thereby they buy at home at lower and sell abroad at higher 
 - ra t es : an d- abroad there is but one buyer of foreign merchandize and but 
 one that sells them at home ; both which again are gainful to the adven- 
 turers. 
 
 Of ^this dou ble monopoljr^ one part is disadvantageous to lie, people at 
 
 home, the otE er TiT^ireigriers. Tor atTibme ^y fheTr sole exportation they 
 set what price they^lease on the husbandry and handiworks of the people ; 
 and by the sole importation, what price they please on all foreign com- 
 modities the people have need of ; both which are ill for the people. On 
 the contrary, by the sole selling of the native commodities abroad, and sole 
 buying the foreign commodities upon the place, they raise the price of 
 those, and abate the price of these, to the disadvantage of the foreigner ; for 
 where but one selleth, the merchandize is the dearer ; and where but one 
 
no OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 buyeth, the cheaper. Such corporations therefore are no other thail 
 liionopoUes ; though they would be very profitable for a commonwealth, if 
 being bound up into one body in foreign markets they were at liberty at 
 home, every man to buy and sell at what price he could. 
 
 The end of these bodies of merchants being not a common benefit to 
 the whole body, which have in this case no common stock, but what is 
 deducted out of the particular adventures, for building, buying, victualling 
 and manning of ships, but the particular gain of eveiy adventurer, it is 
 reason that every one be acquainted with the employment of his own ; that 
 is, that every one be of the assembly, that shall have the power to order 
 the same ; and be acquainted with their accounts. And therefore the 
 representative of such a body must be an assembly, where every member of 
 the body may be present at the consultations, if he will. 
 
 If a body politic of merchants contract a debt to a stranger by the act of 
 their representative assembly, every member is liable by himself for the 
 whole. For a stranger can take no notice of their private laws, but con- 
 sidereth them as so many particular men, obliged every one to the whole 
 payment, till payment made by one disdhargeth all the rest : but if the debt 
 be to one of the company, the creditor is debtor for the whole to himself, 
 and cannot therefore demand his debt, but only from the common stock, if 
 there be any. 
 
 If the commonwealth impose a tax upon the body, it is understood to 
 be laid upon every member proportionably to his particular adventure in 
 the company. For there is in this case no other common stock, but what 
 is made of their particular adventures. 
 
 If a mulct be laid upon the body for some unlawful act, they only are 
 .liable by whose votes the act was decreed, or by whose assistance it was 
 executed ; for in none of the rest is there any other crime but being of the 
 body ; which if a crime, because the body was ordained by the authority of 
 the commonwealth, is not his. 
 
 If one of the members be indebted to the body, he may be sued by the 
 body ; but his goods cannot be taken, nor his person imprisoned by the 
 authority of the body ; but only by authority of the commonwealth : for if 
 they can do it by their own authority, they can by their own authority give 
 judgment that the debt is due ; which is as much as to be judge in their 
 own cause. 
 
 Those bodies made for the government of men, or of traffic, be either 
 perpetual, or for a time prescribed by writing. But there be bodies also 
 whose times are limited, and that only by the nature of their business. For 
 example, if a sovereign monarch, or a sovereign assembly, shall think fit to 
 . give command to the towns, and other several parts of their territory, to 
 send tohim their deputies, to inform him of the condition and necessities of 
 the subjects, or to advise with him for the making of good laws, or for any 
 other canse, as with one person representing the whole country, such deputies, 
 having a place and time of meeting assigned them, are there, and at that 
 time, a body politic, representing every subject of that dominion ; but it is 
 only for such matters as shall be propounded unto them by that man, or 
 assembly, that by the sovereign authority sent for them ; and when it shall 
 be declared that nothing more shall be propounded, nor debated by them, 
 the body is dissolved. For if they were the absolute representatives of the 
 people, then were it the sovereign assembly ; and so there would be two 
 sovereign assemblies, or two sovereigns, over the same people ; which can- 
 ■ not consist with their peace. And therefore where there is once a sove- 
 reignty, there can be no absolute representation of the people, but by it. 
 And for the limits of how far such a body shall represent the whole people, 
 they are set forth in the writing by which they were sent for. For the 
 
SYSTEMS SUByECT, POLITICAL, ETC. m 
 
 people cannot choose their deputies to other intent than is in the writing 
 directed to them from their sovereign expressed. 
 ( P Aate bod ies regular and lawful, are those that are constituted without 
 letter4'or other written authority, saving, the laws common to all other 
 subjects, And because they be united in one person representative, they 
 are held for regular ; such as are all families, in which the father or master 
 ordereth the wliole family. For he obligeth his children and servants, as 
 far as the law peimitteth, though not further, because none of them are bound 
 to obedience m those actions, which the law hath forbidden to be done. In 
 all other actions, during the time they are under domestic government, they 
 are subject to their fathers and masters, as to their immediate sovereigns. 
 For the father and master, being before the institution of commonwealth, 
 absolute sovereigns in their own families, they lose afterward no mare of 
 their authority than the law of the commonwealth taketh from them. 
 
 Private bodies regular, but unlawful, are those that unite themselves into 
 one person representative, without any public authority at all : such as are 
 the corporations of beggars, thieves and gipsies, the better to order their 
 trade of begging and stealing ; and the corporations of men, that by authority 
 from any foreign person, unite themselves in another's dominion, for the 
 easier propagation of doctrines, and for making a party against the power 
 of the commonwealth. 
 
 Irregular systems, in their nature but leagues, or sometimes mere con- 
 course of people, witliout union to any particular design, not by obligation 
 of one to another, but proceeding only from a similitude of wills and incli- 
 nations, become lawful or unlawful according to the lawfulness or unlaw- 
 fulness of every particular man's design therein : and his design is to be 
 understood by the occasion. 
 
 The leagues of subjects, because leagues are commonly made for mutual 
 defence, are in a commonwealth, which is no more than a league of all the 
 subjects together, for the most part unnecessary, and savour of unlawful 
 design ; and are for that cause unlawful, and go commonly by the name of 
 factions, or conspiracies. For a league being n connection of men by 
 covenants, if there be no power given to any one man or assembly, as in 
 the condition of mere nature, to compel them to performance, is so long 
 only valid, as there ariseth no just cause of distrust: and therefore leagues 
 between commonwealths, over whom there is no human power established, 
 to keep them all in awe, are not only lawful, but also profitable for the lime 
 they last. But leagues of the subjects of one and the same commonwealth, 
 where every one may obtain his right by means of the sovereign power, are 
 unnecessary to the maintaining of peace and justice, and, in case the design 
 of them be evil or unknown to the commonwealth, imlawful. For all 
 uniting -of stxen^JhLbjrprivatemenjja, iLfiw eyiUaU^ 
 Uiifaipwn, dgtigSKWS-tfi. the pubUf;, aijij. Mtfjustly conced^ 
 
 If the sovereign power be in a great assembly, and a number of men, part 
 of the assembly, without authority consult apart, to contrive the guidance of 
 the rest ; this is a faction, or conspiracy unlawfiU, as being a fraudulent 
 seducing of the assembly for their particular interest. , But if he, whose 
 private interest is to be debated and judged in the assembly, make as many 
 friends as he can ; in him- it is no injustice ; because in this case he is no 
 part of the assembly. And though he hire such friends with money, unless 
 there be an express law against it, yet it is not injustice. For sometimes, 
 as men's manners are, justice cannot be had without money ; and every 
 man may think his own cause just, till it be heard and judged. 
 
 In all commonwealths, if private meu entertain more servants than the 
 government of his estate, and lawful employment he has for them requires, 
 |t is faction, and unlawful. For having the protection of the common- 
 
112 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 wealtli, he needeth not the defence of private force. And whereas in 
 nations not thoroughly civilized, several numerous families have lived in 
 continual hostility, and invaded one another with private force ; yet 
 it is evident enough that they have done unjustly, or else Ihey had no 
 commonwealth. 
 
 And as factions for kindred, so also factions for government of religion, 
 as of Papists, Protestants, &c. , or of state, as patricians and plebeians of 
 old time in Rome, and of aristocralicals and democraticals of old time in 
 Greece, are unjust, as being contrary to the peace and safety of the people, 
 and a taking of the sword out of the hand of the sovereign. 
 
 Concourse of people is an irregular system, the lawfulness or unlawful- 
 ness whereof dependeth on the occasion, and on the number of them that 
 are assembled. If the occasion be lawful and manifest, the concourse is 
 lawful, as the usual meeting of men at church, or at a puljlicshow, in usual 
 numbers ; for if the numbers be extraordinarily great, the occasion is not 
 evident ; and consequently he that cannot render a particular and good 
 account of his being amongst them, is to be judged conscious of an un- 
 lawful and tumultuous design. It may be lawful for a thousand men to join 
 to a petition to be delivered to a judge or magistrate, yet if a thousand men 
 come to present it, it is a tumultuous assembly, because there needs but one 
 or two for that purpose. But in such cases as these, it is not a set number 
 that makes the assembly unlawful, but such a number as the present officers 
 are not able to suppress and bring to justice. 
 
 When an unusual number of men assemble against a man whom they 
 accuse, the assembly is an unlawful tumult ;■ because they may deliver their 
 accusation to the magistrate by a few, or by one man. Such was the case 
 of St. Paul at Ephesus, where Demetrius and a great number of other 
 men brought two of Paul's companions before the magistrate, saying with 
 one voice " Great is Diana of the Ephesians," which was their way of 
 demanding justice against them for teaching the people such doctrine as 
 was against their religion and trade. The occasion here, considering the 
 laws of that people, w.is just, yet was their assembly judged unlawful, and 
 the magistrate reprehended them for it in these words (Acts xix. 38-40) : 
 " If Demetrias and the other workmen can accuse any man of anything, 
 there be pleas and deputies, let them accuse one another. And if you have 
 any other thing to demand, your case may be judged in an assembly lawfully 
 called. For we are in danger to be accused for this day's sedition ; because 
 there is no cause by which any man can render any reason of this concourse 
 of people." Where he calleth an assembly whereof men can give no just 
 account, a sedition, and such as they could not answer for. And this is 
 all I shall say concerning "systems "jjaA assemhliesjof-people, which may 
 be compared, as I said, tothe simi^arfiarts nf ma p's bridy fgiirh as be lawful, 
 to the muscles ; such as are" unlawful, to wens, boils, and apostems, 
 engendered by the unnatural conflux of evil humours. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 0/ the Public Ministers of Sovereign Power. 
 
 In the last chapter I have spoken of the similar parts of a commonwealth : 
 in this I shall speak of the parts organical, which are public ministers. 
 
 A " public minister " is he that by the sovereign, wliether a monarch or 
 an assembly, is employed in any affairs with authority to represent in th^t 
 
OF PUBLIC MINISTERS. 113 
 
 employment the person of the commonwealth. And whereas every man, 
 or assembly that hath sovereignty, representeth two persons, or, as the more 
 common phrase is, has two capacities, one natural and another politic ; as a 
 monarch hath the person not only of the commonwealth, but also of a man, 
 and a sovereign assembly hath the person not only of the commonwealth, 
 but also oi the assembly : they that be servants to thein in their natural 
 capacity are not public ministers ; but those only that serve them in the 
 administration of the public business. And therefore neither ushers, nor 
 sergeants, nor other officers that wait on the assembly for no other purpose 
 but for the commodity of the men assembled in an aristocracy, or demo- 
 cracy ; nor stewards, chamberlains, cofferers, or any other officers of the 
 household of a monarch, are public ministers in a monarchy. 
 
 Of public ministers, some have charge committed to tliem of a general 
 administration, either of the whole dominion, or of a part thereof. Of the 
 whole, as to a protector, or regent, may be committed by the predecessor 
 of an infant king, during his minority, the whole administration of 
 his kingdom. In which case every subject is so far obliged to obedience, 
 as the ordinances he shall make and the commands he shall give be in the 
 king's name, and not inconsistent with his sovereign power. Of a part, or 
 province ; as when either ti monarch, or a sovereign assembly, shall give 
 the general charge ^Ijereof to a governor, lieutenant, prefect, or viceroy : 
 and in this case alsoj every one of that province is obliged to all he shall do 
 in the name of the sovereign, and that not incompatible with the sovereign's 
 rightA For such protectors, viceroys, and governors, have no other right, 
 but what depends on the sovereign's will ; and no commission that can be 
 given them, can be interpreted for a declaration of the will to transfer the 
 sovereignty, without express and perspicuous words to that purpose. And 
 this kind of public ministers resembleth the nerves and tendons that move 
 the several limbs of a body natural. 
 
 Others have special administration ; that is to say, charges of some 
 special business, either at home or abroad : as at home, first, for the 
 economy of a commonwealth, they that have authority concerning the 
 " treasure," as tributes, impositions, rents, fines, or whatsoever public 
 revenue, to collect, receive, issue, or take the accounts thereof, are public 
 ministers : ministers, because they serve the person representative, and can 
 do nothing against his command, nor without his aulhority : public, because 
 they serve him in his political capacity. 
 
 Secondly, they that have aulhQrity_co ncerning the " mi litia ; " to have 
 the custody of arms, forts, ports; to levy, "pay, or condiict soldiers ; or to 
 provide for any necessary thing for the use of war, either by land or sea, are 
 public ministers. But a soldier without command, though he fight for 
 the commonwealth, does not therefore represent the person of it ; because 
 there is none to represent it to. For every one that hath command, 
 represents it to them only whom he commandeth. 
 
 They n j fi n th a t hav^ n u thfirily fT Tptirh, or to enable others to teach the 
 people their duty to the sovereign power, and instruct them in the know- 
 ledge of what is just and unjust, thereby to render them more apt to live in 
 godliness, and in peace amongst themselves, and resist the public enemy, 
 are public ministers : ministers in that they do it not by their own authority, 
 but by another's ; and public, because they do it, or should do it, by no 
 authority but that of the sovereign. The monarch, or the sovereign 
 assembly only hath immediate authority from God, to teach and instruct 
 the people ; and no man but the sovereign receiveth his power Dei gratid 
 simply ; that is to say, from the favour of none but God : all other receive 
 theSs from the favour and providence of God, and iheir sovereigns ; as in 
 9 monarchy Dti gratiA et regis; or Dei frovidentii et mlunt<tte regis. 
 
114 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 They also to whom jurisdiction is given, are public ministers. For in 
 their seats of justice they represent the person of the sovereign ; and their 
 sentence, is his sentence : for, as hath been before declared, all judicature is 
 essentially annexed to the sovereignty ; and therefore all other judges are 
 tut ministers of him or them that have the sovereign povirer. And as 
 controversies are of two sorts, namely of " fact " and of " law ; " so are 
 judgments, some of fact, some of law: and consequently in the same 
 controversy there may be two judges, one of fact, another of law. 
 
 And in both these controversies there may arise a controversy between 
 the party judged and the judge ; which because they be both subjects to the 
 sovereign, ought in equity to be judged by men agreed on by consent of 
 both ; for no man can be judge in his own cause. But the sovereign is 
 already agreed on for judge by them both, and is therefore either to hear 
 the cause and determine it himself, or appoint for judge such as they shall 
 both agree on. And this agreement is then understood to be made between 
 them divers ways ; as first, if the defendant be allowed to except against 
 such of his judges whose interest maketh him suspect them (for as to the 
 complainant, he hath already chosen his own judge), those which he ex- 
 cepteth not against are judges he himself agrees on. Secondly, if he appeal 
 to any other judge, he can appeal no further ; for his appeal is his choice. 
 Thirdly, if he appeal to the sovereign himself, and he by himself, or by 
 delegates which the parties shall agree on, give sentence, that sentence is 
 final ; for the defendant is judged by his own judges, that is to say, by 
 Iiimself. 
 
 These properties of just and rational judicature considered, I cannot 
 forbear to observe the excellent constitution of the courts of justice estab- 
 lished both for Common and also for Public Pleas in England. By 
 Common Pleas, I mean those where both the complainant and defendant 
 are subject ; and by public, which are also called Pleas of the Crown, 
 those where the complainant is the sovereign. For whereas there were two 
 orders of men, whereof one was Lords, the other Commons ; the Lords had 
 this privilege, to have for judges in all capital crimes none but Lords ; and 
 of them as many as would be present ; which being ever acknowledged as 
 a privilege of favour, their judges were none but such as they had themselves 
 desired. And in all controversies, every subject (as also in civil controver- 
 sies the Lords) had for judges men of the country where the matter in 
 controversy lay ; against which he might make his exceptions, till at last 
 twelve men without exception being agreed on, they were judged by those 
 twelve. So that having his own judges, there could be nothing alleged by 
 the party why the sentence should not be final. These public persons, with 
 authority from the sovereign power, either to instruct or judge the people, 
 are such members of the commonwealth as may fitly be compared to the 
 organs of voice in a body natural. 
 n Public ministers are also all those that have authority from the sovereign to 
 .procure the execution of judgments given ; to publish the sovereign's com- 
 mands ; to suppress tumults ; to apprehend and imprison malefactors; and 
 other acts tending to the conservation of the peace. For every act they do 
 by such authority is the act of the commonwealth ; and their service, 
 answerable to that of the hands, in a body natural. 
 
 Public ministers abroad are those that represent the person of their own 
 sovereign to foreign states. Such are ambassadors, messengers, agents, and 
 heralds, sent by public authority and on public business. 
 
 But such as are sent by authority only of some private party of a troubled 
 state, though they be received, are neither public nor private ministers of 
 the commonwealth ; because none of their actions liave the commonwealth 
 for author. Likewise, an ambassador sent from a prince to congratulate 
 
TtiE NtfTRiTlON OF A COMMONWEALTH. 1 1 5 
 
 condole, or to assist at a solemnity ; thoughthe authority be public, yet 
 because the business is private, and belonging to him in his natural capa- 
 city, is a private person. Also if a man be sent into another country 
 secretly to explore their counsels and strength, though both the authority 
 and tlie business be public, yet because there is none to take notice of any 
 person in him but his own, he is but a private minister ; but yet a minister 
 of the cominonwealth, and may be compared to an eye in the body 
 natural. And those that are appointed to receive the petitions or other 
 informations of the people, and are as it were the public ear, are public 
 ministers, and represent their sovereign in that ofhce. 
 
 Neither a councillor, nor a council of state, if we consider it with 
 no authority of judicature or command, but only of giving advice to the 
 sovereign when it is required, or of offering it when it is not required, is a 
 public person. For the advice is addressed to the sovereign only, whose 
 person cannot in his own presence be represented to liim by another. But 
 a body of councillors are never without some other authority, either of 
 judicature, or of immediate administration : as in a monarchy, they 
 rgpfesent the monarch in delivering his commands to the public minista£.;___ 
 ' m a democracy, the council or senate propounds the result of their delibe- j 
 rations to the people, as a council ; but when they appoint judges, or hear \l_, 
 causes, or give audience to ambassadors, it is in the quality of a minister of ; 
 the people : and in an aristocracy, the council of state is the sovereign, ; 
 asMmbly itself; and gives counsel to none but themselves, ~~ 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Of the Nutrition and Procreation of a Commonwealth. 
 
 "fliE " nutrition " of a commonwealth consisteth in the "plenty " and "dis- 
 tribution" of " materials " conducing to life; in "concoction," or "pre- 
 paration ; " and, when concocted, in the " conveyance " of it, by convenient 
 conduits, to the public use. 
 
 As for the plenty of matter, it is a thing limited by Nature to those com- 
 modities which from the two breasts of our common mother, land and sea, 
 God usually either freely giveth, or for labour selleth to mankind. 
 
 For the matter of this nutriment, consisting in animals, vegetals, and 
 minerals, God hath freely laid them before us, in or near to the face of the 
 earth ; so as there needeth no more but the labour and industry of receiving 
 them. Insomuch as plenty dependeth, next to God's favour, merely on the 
 labour and industry of men. 
 
 This matter, commonly called commodities, is partly "native," and 
 partly " foreign ; " " native," that which is to be had within the territory of 
 the commonwealth ; "foreign," that which is imported from without. And 
 because there is no territory under the dominion of one commonwealth, 
 except it be of very vast extent, that produceth all things needful for the 
 maintenance and motion of the whole body ; and few that pruduce not 
 something more than necessary; the superfluous commodities to be had 
 within, become no more superfluous, but supply these wants at home, by im 
 portation of that which may be had abroad, either by exchange, or by just 
 war, or by labour. For a man's labour also is a commodity exchangeable 
 for benefit, as well as any other thing ; and there have been commonwealths 
 that having no more territory than hath served them for habitation, have 
 
ii6 OF COMMONWEALTH: 
 
 nevertheless not only maintained, but also incfeased their power, partly \tj 
 the labour 9f trading from one place to another, and partly by selling the 
 manufactures wliereof the materials were brought in from other places. 
 
 The distribution of the materials of this nourishment, is the constitution 
 of "mine," and "thine," and "his;" that is to say, in one word 
 ' ' propriety ; " and belongeth in all kinds of commonwealth to the sovereign 
 power. For where there is no commonwealth there is, as hath been already 
 shown, a perpetual war of every man against his neighbour ; and therefore 
 everything is his that getteth it, and keepeth it by force ; which is neither 
 " propriety " nor "community ; " but "uncertainty." Which is so evident, 
 that even Cicero, a passionate defender of liberty, in a public pleading, 
 attributeth all propriety to the law civil. " Let the civil law," saithhe, 
 "be once abandoned, or but negligently guarded, not to say oppressed, and 
 there is nothing, that any man can be sure to receive from his ancestor, or 
 leave to his children." And again, " Take away the civil law, and no man 
 knows what is his own, and what another man's." Seeing iherefore the in- 
 troduction of " propriety " is an effect of commonwealth, which can 
 do nothing but by the person that represents it, it is the act only of the 
 sovereign ; and consisteth in the laws, which none can make that have not 
 the sovereign power. And tliis they well knew of old, who called that 
 ^ iiilios, that is to say, " distribution," which we call law ; and defined 
 » justise, by " distributing " to every man " his own." 
 
 C ~ In this distribution, the first law is ior division of the land itself : wherein 
 l\\ the sovereign assigneth to every man a portion, according as he, and 
 - I not according as any subject, or anynuBilier-£)f thrm, ihall judgp agreeable 
 J'"' VJa.^quity, and the common goodXTfie children ol Israel were a common- 
 wealth in the wilderness ; but wanted the commodities of the earth, till 
 they were masters of the Land of Promise ; which afterwards was divided 
 amongst them, not by their own discretion, but by the discretion of Eleazar 
 the Priest and Joshua their General, who, when there were twelve tribes, 
 making them thirteeen by subdivision of the tribe of Joseph, made never- 
 theless but twelve portions of the land ; and ordained for the tribe of Levi 
 no land ; but assigned them the tenth part of the whole fruits ; which 
 division was therefore arbitraiy. And though a people coming into 
 possession of a land by war, do not always exterminate the ancient 
 inhabitants, as did the Jews, but leave to many, or most, or all of them 
 their estates ; yet it is manifest they hold them afterwards, as of the victors' 
 distribution ; as the people of England held all theirs of William the 
 Conqueror. 
 
 From whence we may collect, that the propriety which a subject hath in 
 his lands, consisteth in a right to exclude all other subjects from the use of 
 them ; and not to exclude their sovereign, be it an assembly or a monarch. 
 For seeing the sovereign, that is to say, the commonwealth, whose person 
 he representeth, is understood to do nothing but in order to the common 
 peace and security, this distribution ol lands is to be understood as done in 
 order to the same : and consequently, whatsoever distribution he shall 
 make in prejudice thereof, is contrary to the will of every subject that com- 
 mitted his peace and safety to his discretion and conscience ; and therefore 
 by the will of every one of them, it is to be reputed void. It is true that a 
 sovereign monarch, or the greater part of a sovereign assembly, may ordain 
 the doing of many things in pursuit of their passions, contraiy to their own 
 consciences, which is a breach of trust and of the law of Nature ; but this is 
 not enough to authorize any subject, either to make war upon, or so much 
 as to accuse of injustice, or any way to speak evil of their sovereign ; 
 because they have authorized all his actions, and in bestowing the sovereign 
 power, made them their own. But in what cases the commands of 
 
THE NUTRiTioM OP' A COMMOI^WEALTH. li? 
 
 sovereigns are contrary to equity and the law of Nature, is to be considered 
 hereafter in another place. 
 
 In the distribution of land, the commonwealth itself, may be conceived to ^i i ' 
 have a portion, and possess and improve the same by their representative ; ^a'-' ' 
 and that such portion may be made sufficient to sustain the whole expense ^ J 
 
 to the common peace and defence necessarily required. Which were very ,- j-* ^ 
 true, if there could be any representative conceived free from human " . ' 
 passions and infirmities. But the nature of men being as it is, the setting >*■ 
 
 forlh of public land, or of any certain revenue for the commonwealth, is in ^ 
 vain ; and tendeth to the dissolution of government, and to the condition of 
 mere nature and war, as soon as ever the sovereign power falleth into the 
 hands of a monarch, or of an assembly, that are either too negligent of 
 money, or too hazardous in engaging the public stock into a long or costly 
 war. Commonwealths can endure no diet : for seeing their expense is not 
 limited by their own appetite, but by external accidents and the appetites 
 of their neighbours, the public riches cannot be limited by other limits 
 than those which the emergent occasions shall require. And whereas in 
 England, there were by the Conqueror divers lands reserved to his own 
 use, besides forests and chases, either for his recreation, or preservation of 
 woods, and divers services reserved on the land he gave his subjects ; yet it 
 seems they were not reserved for his maintenance in his public, but in his 
 natural capacity. For he and his successors did for all that lay arbitrary 
 taxes on all subjects' land, when they judged it necessary. Or if those 
 public lands and services were ordained as a sufficient maintenance of the 
 commonwealth, it was contrary to the scope of the institution ; being, as it 
 appeared by those ensuing taxes, insuflScient, and, as it appears by the late 
 small revenue of the crown, subject to alienation and diminution. It is 
 therefore in vain to assign a portion to the commonwealth ; which may 
 sell, or give it away ; and does sell and give it away, when it is done by 
 their representative. 
 
 As the distribution of lands at home ; so also to assign in what places, 
 and for what commodities, the subject shall traffic abroadf belongeth to the 
 sovereign. For if it did belong to private persons to use their own discre- 
 tion therein, some of them would be drawn for gain, both to furnish the 
 enemy with means to huit the commonwealth and hurt it themselves, by 
 importing such things, as pleasing men's appetites, be nevertheless noxious, 
 or at least unpofitable to them. And therefore it belongeth to the common- 
 wealth, that is, to the sovereign only, to approve or disapprove both of the 
 places and matter of foreign traffic. 
 
 Further, seeing it is not enough to the sustentation of a commonwealth, y - Vj 
 that every man have a propriety in a portion of land, or in some few com- T^' '' 
 moditiep, or a natural property in some useful art, and there is no art in the v' ^ , 
 world, but is necessary either for the being or well-being almost of every 
 particular man ; it is necessary that men distribute that which they can 
 spare, and transfer their propriety therein, mutually one to another by 
 exchange and mutual contract. And therefore it belongeth to the common- [ 
 wealth, that is to say, to the sovereign, to appoint in what manner all kinds ' 
 of contract between subjects, as buying, selling, exchanging, borrowing, 
 lending, letting and taking to hire, are to be made ; and by what words 
 and signs they shall be understood for valid. And for the matter and dis- 
 tribution of the nourishment, to the several members of the commonwealth, 
 thus much, considering the model of the whole work, is sufficient. 
 
 By concoction I understand the reducing of all commodities which are 
 not presently consumed, but reserved for nourishment in time to come, to 
 something of equal value, and withal so portable as not to hinder the 
 motion of men from place to place ; to the end a man may have in what 
 
 *1 
 
1 1 8 OF COMMONWEAL TH. 
 
 place soever such nourishment as the place affordeth. And this is nothing 
 else but gold, and silver, and money. For gold and silver, being, as it 
 happens, almost in all countries of the world higMy valued, is a commodious 
 measure of the value of all things else between nations ; and money, of 
 what matter soever coined by the sovereign of a commonweallh, is a 
 sufficient measure of the value of all things else between the subjects of 
 that commonwealth. By the means of which measures all commodities, 
 movable and immovable, are made to accompany a man to all places of 
 his resort, within and without the place of his ordinary residence ; and the 
 same passeth from man to man within the commonwealth ; and goes round 
 about, nourishing as it passeth every part thereof ; insomuch as this con- 
 coction is as It were the sangaification of the commonwealth ; for natural 
 blood is in like manner made of the fruits of the earth, and circulating, 
 nourisheth by the way every member of the body of man. 
 
 And because silver and gold have their value from the matter itself, they 
 have first this privilege, that the value of them cannot be altered by the 
 power of one, nor of a few commonwealths, as being a common measure 
 of the commodities of all places. But base money may easily be enhanced 
 or abased. Secondly, they have the privilege to malie commonwealths 
 move, and stretch out their arms, when need is, into foreign countries, and 
 supply, not only private subjects that travel, but also whole armies with 
 provision. But that coin, which Is not considerable for the matter, but for 
 the stamp of the place, being unable to endure change of air, hath its 
 effect at home only ; where also it is subject to the change of laws, and 
 thereby to have the value diminished, to the prejudice many times of those 
 that have it. 
 
 The conduits and ways by which it is conveyed to the public use, are of 
 two sorts : one, that conveyeth it to the public coffers ; the other, that 
 issueth the same out again for public payments. Of the first sort, are 
 collectors, receivers, and treasurers ; of the second are the treasurers again, 
 and the officers appointed for payment of several public or private minis- 
 ters. And in this also, the artificial man maintains his resemblance with 
 the natural ; whose veins receiving the blood from the several parts of the 
 body, carry it to the heart, where being made vital, the heart by the arteries 
 sends it out again, to enliven, and enable for motion all the members of the 
 same. 
 
 The procreatijaipr children of a commonwealth are those we call "plan- 
 tations," or""""c oloni"es. " which'are numbers of men sent out from the 
 commonwealth, uMer a conductor or governor, tq inhabit a foreign country, 
 either formerly void of inhabitants, or made void then by war. And wlien 
 a colony is settled, they are either a commonwealth of themselves, dis- 
 charged of their subjection to their sovereign that sent them, as hath been 
 done by many commonwealths of ancient time, in which case the common- 
 wealth from which they went was called their metropolis or mother, and 
 requires no more of them, than fathers require of the children whom they 
 emancipate and make free from their domestic government, which is honour 
 and friendship ; or else they remain united to their metropolis, as were the 
 colonies of the people of Rome ; and then they are no commonwealths 
 themselves, but provinces, and parts of the commonwealth that sent them. 
 So that the right of colonies, saving honour and league with their metro- 
 polis, dependeth wholly on their license or letters, by which their sovereign 
 authorized them to plant. 
 
 
 
 
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OF COUNSEL. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XXV, 
 
 Of Counsel. 
 
 How fallacious it is to judge of the nature of things by the ordinary and 
 inconstant use of words, appeareth in nothing more than in the confusion 
 of counsels and commands, arising from the imperative manner of speaking 
 in ihera both, and in many other occasions besides. For the words "do 
 this," are the words not only of him that commandeth, but also of him that 
 giveth counsel, and of him that exhorteth ; and yet there are but few that 
 Bee not that tliese are very different things, or that cannot distinguish between 
 them when they Jjerceive who it is that speaketh, and to whom the speech 
 is directed, and upon what occasion. . But finding those phrases in men's 
 writings, and being not able or not willing to enter into a consideration of 
 the circumstances, they mistake sometimes the precepts of counsellors for 
 the precepts of them that command ; and sometimes the contrary, according 
 as it best agreeth with the conclusions they would infer, or the actions they 
 approve. To avoid which mistakes, and render to those terms of com- 
 manding, counselling, and exhorting their proper and distinct significations, 
 I define them thus. 
 
 " Command " is, where a man saith " do this," or " do not this,'' with- 
 out expecting other reason than the will of him that says it. From this it 
 followeth manifestly, that he that commandeth, pretendeth thereby his own 
 benefit ; for the reason of his command is his own will only, and the 
 proper object of every man's will, is some good to himself. 
 
 " Counsel," is where a man saith, " do," or " do not this," and deduceth 
 his reasons from the benefit that arriveth by it to him to whom he saith it. 
 And from this it is evident, that he that giveth counsel, pretendeth only, 
 whatsoever he intendeth, the good of him to whom he giveth it. ., — . 
 
 Therefore between counsel and command, one great difference is, that || 
 command is directed to a man's own benefit ; and counsel to the benefit.gfjj 
 another man. And from this ariseth another difference, that a aian may be _ 
 nhli^_rl to An wha t lip ig rnr»iman<lod-; .as when he hath covenanted to 
 -obe y: but he cannot be obliged to do as he is counseIle3rbecause-the hurt of 
 not following it, is his own ; or if he should covenant to follow it, then is 
 the counsel turned into the nature of a command. A third difference 
 between them is, that no man can pretend a right to be of another man's 
 counsel ; because he is not to pretend benefit by it to himself : but to 
 demand right to counsel another, argues a will to know his designs, or to 
 gain some other good to himself: which, as I said before, is of every man's 
 will the proper object. 
 
 This also is incident to the nature of counsel ; that whatsoever it be, he 
 that asketh it, cannot in equity accuse or punish it : for to ask counsel of 
 another, is to permit him to give sucli counsel as he shall think best ; and 
 consequently, he that giveth counsel to his sovereign, whether a monarch, 
 or an assembly, when he asketh it, cannot in equity be punished for it, 
 whether the same be conformable to the opinion of the most, or not, so it 
 be to the proposition in debate. For if the sense of the assembly can be 
 taken notice of, before the debate be ended, they should neither ask nor 
 take any further counsel ; for the sense of the assembly is the resolution of 
 the debate, and end of all deliberation. And generally he .thaLjdemandeth. 
 couBsel^is author of it ; and therebre-cannot-pamfArit ; and what-^lie 
 s overeign g fi"""!-, "" "'<■" ^1"* '-"J"^ But if one subject giveth counsel to 
 another, to do anything contrary to the laws, whether that couus?l 
 
i5o OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 proceed from evil intention, or from ignorance only, it is punishable by the 
 commonwealth ; because ignorance of the law is no good excuse, where 
 every man is bound to take notice of the laws to which he is subject. 
 
 " E xhorta tion " and " dehortation " is counsel, accompanied with signs 
 in him ttiat giveth it, of vehement desire to have it followed : or to say it 
 more briefly, ' ' cou nsel vehe mently pressed." For he that exhorteth, doth 
 not deduce the consequences orwtectrhe adviseth to be done, and tie him- 
 self therein to the rigour of true reasoning ; but encourages him he conn- 
 selleth to action : as he that dehorteth, deterreth him from it. And 
 therefore they have in their speeches, a regard to the common passions 
 and opinions of men, in deducing their reasons ; and make use of simili- 
 tudes, metaphors, examples, and other tools of oratory, to persuade their 
 hearers of the utility, honour, or justice of following their advice. 
 
 From whence may be inferred, first, that ex hoitation and dehortation is 
 ^\ <1i iprtff1 tn tlip gnnd-nthim-thttt^-givf^i the-counseV-Bot of him that asketh 
 „' it, which is contrary to the duty of a counsellor ; who, by the definition of 
 
 counsel, ought to regard not his own benefit, but his whom he adviseth. 
 And that he directeth his counsel to his own benefit, is manifest enough, 
 by the long and vehement urging, or by the artificial giving thereof; which 
 being not required of him, and consequently proceeding from his own 
 occasions, is directed principally to his own benefit, and but accidentally to 
 the good of him that is counselled, or not at all. 
 
 Secondly, that the use ot exhortation and dehortation lieth only where a 
 man is to speak to a multitude ; because when the speech' is addressed to 
 one, he may intermpt him, and examine his reasons more rigorously than 
 can be done in a multitude ; which are too many to enter into dispute and 
 dialogue with him that speaketh indifferently to them all at once. 
 
 ■ Thirdly, that they that exhort and dehort, where they are required to 
 give counsel, are corrupt counsellors, and as it were bribed by their own 
 interest. For though the counsel they give be never so good ; yet he that 
 gives it, is no more a good counsellor than he that giveth a just sentence 
 for a reward is a just judge. But where a man may lawfully command, as 
 a father in his family, or a leader in an army, his exhortations and dehoita- 
 tions are not only lawful, but also necessary and laudable. But then they 
 are no more counsels but commands ; which when they are for execution of 
 sour labour, sometimes necessity and always humanity requireth to be 
 sweetened in the delivery by encouragement, and in the tune and phrase of 
 counsel, rather than in harsher language of command. 
 
 Examples of the difference between command and counsel we may take 
 from the forms of speech that express them in Holy Scripture. " Have no 
 other gods but me;" "make to thyself no graven image;" "take not 
 God'^ name in vain ; " " sanctify the Sabbath ; " " honour thy parents ; " 
 "kill not;" "steal not," &c., are commands; because the reason for 
 which we are to obey them is drawn from the will of God our king, whom 
 we are obliged to obey. But these words, " Sell all thou hast ; give it to 
 the poor ;,and follow me," are counsel ; because the reason for which we 
 are to do so, is drawn from our own benefit ; which is this, that we shall 
 have "treasure in heaven." These words, "Go into the village over 
 against you, and you shall find an ass tied, and her colt ; loose her, and 
 bring her to me," are a command ; for the reason of their fact is drawn 
 from the will of their Master : but these words, " Repent and be baptized 
 in the name of Jesus," are counsel ; because the reason why we should so 
 do, tendeth not to any benefit of God Almighty, who shall still be king in 
 what manner soever we rebel ; but of ourselves, who have no other means 
 of avoiding the punishment hanging over us for our sins. 
 
 As the difference pf counsel from command hath be?n now deduced from 
 
OP COUNSEL. 12 1 
 
 the nature of counsel, consisting in a deducing of the benefit, or hurt that 
 may arise to him that is to be counselled, by the necessary or probable con- 
 sequences of the action he propoundeth : so may also the differences 
 between " apt " and " inept " counsellors be derived from the same. For 
 experience, being but memory of the consequences of lilie actions formerly 
 observed, and counsel but the speech whereby that experience is made 
 known to another ^the virtues and defects of counsel are the same with the 
 virtues and defects intellectual : and to the person of a commonwealth, his 
 counsellors serve him in the place of memory and mental discourse. But 
 with this resemblance of the commonwealth lo a natural man, there is one 
 dissimilitude joined of great importance ; which is, that a natural man re- 
 ceiveth his experience from the natural objects of sense, which work upon 
 him without passion or interest of their own ; whereas they that give 
 counsel to the representative person of a commonwealth may have, and have 
 often their particular ends and passions, that render their counsels always 
 suspected, and many times unfaithful. And therefore we may set down for 
 thf first condition of a good counsellor, "that his ends and ii^erests be not 
 inconsistent with the ends and interests of him he counselletJiy' 
 
 Secondly, because the office of a counsellor, when an action comes into 
 deliberation, is to make manifest the consequences of it, iniuch manner as 
 he that is counselled may be truly and evidently informed ;me ought to pro- 
 pound his advice in such form of speech as may make the truth most evi- 
 dently appeapi that is to say, with as firm ratiocination, as significant and 
 proper language, and as briefly as the evidence will permit. And therefore 
 " rash and unevident inferences," such as are fetched only from examples or 
 authority of books, and are not arguments of what is good or evil, but wit- 
 nesses of fact or of opinion ; " obscure, confused, and ambiguous ex- 
 pressions, also all metaphorical speeches, tending to the stirring up of 
 passions," (because such reasoning and such expressions are useful only to 
 deceive, or to lead him we counsel towards other ends than his own,) " are 
 repugnant to the office of a counsellor." 
 
 Thirdly, because the ability of counselling proceedeth from experience 
 and long study ; and no man is presumed to have experience in all those 
 things that to Uie administration of a great commonwealth are necessary to 
 be known, '1(iio man is presumed to be a good counsellor, but in such 
 business as he hath not oijy been much versed in, but hath also much medi- 
 tated on, and considered.;) For seeing the business of a commonwealth is 
 this, to preserve the people in peace at home, and defend them against 
 foreign invasion, we shall find it requires great knowledge of the disposition 
 of mankind, of the rights of government, and of the nature of equity, law, 
 justice, and honour, not to be attained without study ; and of the strength, 
 commodities, places, both of their own country, and their neighbours ; as 
 also of the inclinations and designs of all nations thnt may any way annoy 
 them. And this is not attained to without much experience. Of which 
 things, not only the whole sum, but every one of the particulars requires the 
 age and observation of a man in years, and of more than ordinary study. 
 The wit required for counsel, as I have said before (chap, viii.), is judgment. 
 And the differences of men in that point come from different education, of 
 some to one kind of study or business, and of others to another. When for 
 the doing of anything there be infallible rules, as in engines and edifices, 
 the rules of geometry, all the experience of the world cannot equal his 
 counsel that has learnt or found out the rule. And when there is no such 
 rule, he that hath most experience in that particular kind of business has 
 therein the best judgment, and is the best counsellor. 
 
 Fourthly, to be able to give counsel to a commonwealth, in a business 
 that hath reference to another commonwealth, " it is necessary to be 
 
123 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 acquainted with the intelligences, and letters " that come from thence, " and 
 with all the records of treaties, and other transactions of state " between 
 them ; which none can do, but such as the representative shall think fit. 
 By which we may see, that they who are not called to counsel, can have 
 no good counsel in such cases to obtrude. 
 
 Fifthly, supposing the number of counsellors equal, .a man is better 
 counselled by hearing them apart than in an assembly ; and that for many 
 causes. First, in hearing them apart you have the advice of every man ; 
 but in an assembly many of them deliver their advice with " aye, " or "no," 
 or with their hands or feet, not moved by their own sense, but by the 
 eloquence of another, or for fear of displeasing some that have spoken, or 
 the whole assembly, by contradiction ; or for fear of appearing duller in 
 apprehension than those that have applauded the contrary opinion. 
 Secondly, in an assembly of many, there cannot choose but be some whose 
 interests are contrary to that of tire public j and these their interests make 
 passionate, and passion eloquent, and eloquence draws others Into the 
 same advice. For the passions of men, which asunder are moderate, as the 
 heat of one brand ; in an assembly are like many brands, that inflame one 
 another, especially when they blow one another with orations, to the 
 setting of the commonwealth on fire, under pretence of counselling it. 
 Thirdly, in li^ninf ■»Yr''vr"'n ?P'""^ one may examine, when there is need, 
 the truth or probability of his reasons, and of the grounds of the advice he 
 gives, by frequent interruptions and objections ; which qannot be done in 
 an assemhly, where in every difficult question a man is rather astonied 
 and dazzled with the variety of discourse upon it, than informed of the 
 course he ought to take. Besides, there cannot be an assembly of many 
 called together for advice, wherein there be not some that have the 
 ambition to be thought eloquent, and also learned in the politics ; and give 
 not their advice with care of the business propounded, but of the applause 
 of their motley orations, made of the divers coloured threads or shreds of 
 authors; which is an impertinence at least, that takes away the time of 
 serious consultation, and ui the secret way of counselling apart, is easily 
 avoided. Fourthly, in deliberations that ought to be kept secret, whereof there 
 be many occasions in public business, the counsels of inany, and especially 
 in assemblies, are dangerous ; and therefore great assemblies are neces- 
 sitated to commit such affairs to lesser numbers, and of such persons as are 
 most versed, and in whose fidelity they have most confidence. 
 
 To conclude, who is there that so far approves the taking of counsel from 
 a great assembly of counsellors, that wisheth for, or would accept of their 
 pains, when there is a question of-marrying his childrj n, disposing of his 
 lands, governing his household, or managing his private estate, especially 
 if there be amongst them such as wish not his prosperity ? A man that 
 doth his business by the help of many and prudent counsellors, with every 
 one consulting apart in his proper element, does it best, as he that useth 
 able seconds at tennis-play, placed in their proper stations. lie does next 
 best that useth his own judgment only, as he that has no secoird at all. 
 But he that is carried up and down to his business in a framed counsel, 
 which cannot move but by the plurality of consenting opinions, the execu- 
 tion whereof is commonly, out of envy or interest, retarded by the part 
 dissenting, doss it worst of all, and like one that is carried to the ball, 
 though by good players, yet in a wheelbarrow or other frame, heavy of 
 itself, and retarded also by the inconcurrent judgments and endeavours of 
 them that drive it ; and so much the more, as they be more that set their 
 hands to it ; and most of all, when there is one, or mere amongst them, 
 that desire to have him lose. And though it be true that many eyes see 
 more than one ; yet it is not to be understood of many counsellors, but then 
 
OF CIVIL LA WS. 123 
 
 only when the final resolution is in one man. Othenvise, because many 
 eyes see the same thing in divers lines, and are apt to lo ok asquinLtowards 
 their priva te benefit ;jhev that desire not to miss their mark, though they 
 look tll)6ut with two eyes, yet they never aim but with one ; and therefore ^ 
 no great popular commonwealth was ever kept up but either by a f 
 enemy that united them, or by the reputation of some eminent^^ 
 amongst them, or by the secret counsel of a few, or by the mutua^"" 
 equal factions, and not by the open consultations of the assemh' 
 as for very little commonwealths, be they popular or monarchi c 
 no human wisdom can uphold them longer than the jealousy laaRR of their 
 potent neighbours. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Of Civil Laws. 
 
 By " civil la ws,"-I understand the laws that men are therefore bound to 
 observe, because they are members, not of this or that commonwealth in 
 particular, but nf a commanwealth. For the knowledge of particular laws 
 betongeth to them that profess the study of the laws of their several coun- 
 tries ; but the knowledge of civil law in general to any man. The ancient 
 law of Rome was called their " civiriaw^"~lrom the word civitas, which 
 signifies a commonwealth : and those countries which having been under 
 the Roman empire, and governed by that law, retain still such part thereof 
 as they think fit, call that part the civil law, to distinguish it from the rest 
 of their own civil laws. But that is not it I intend to speak of here ; my 
 design being not to show what is law here and there ; but what is law ; as 
 Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and divers others have done, without taking upon 
 them the profession of the study of the law. 
 
 And first it is manifest, that the law in general jsji^^,_caunselrbut com- 
 mand ;'nor a command of any man to any Than ; but only ^ Tumj'whose 
 cbmnrand is addressed to one formerly obliged to obey him. And as for civil 
 law, it addeth only the name of the person commanding, which is persona 
 civitatis, the person of the commonwealth. 
 
 /'Which considered, I define civil law in this manner. " 'Civil law,' is t^ 
 /every subject, those rules, which the commonwealth hath commanded him, \ 
 V by word, writing, or other sufficient sign of the will, to make use of, for the I 
 ''distinction of right and wrong ; that is to say, of what is contrary and whay 
 is not contrary to the^jrure. " ^ 
 
 In which definition, there is nothing that is not at first sight evident. For 
 every man seeth, that some laws are addressed to all the subjects in general ; 
 some to particular provinces; some to particular vocations; and some to 
 particular men ; and are therefore laws to every of those to whom the com- 
 mand is directed, and to none else. As also, that laws are the rules of just 
 and unjust ; nothing being reputed unjust that is not contrary to some law. 
 Likewise, that none can make laws but the commonwealth ; because our 
 subjection is to the commonwealth only : and that commands are to be sig- 
 nified by sufficient signs ; because a man knows not otherwise how to obey 
 them. And therefore, w hatsoev er_can fron pi this defi nitii<n Jjy -ne.cessaj;y 
 CQUsequenca _be deduced, ouf ^ht \n hp aElmmiJedfiad, for truth.> Now I 
 deduce from it this that foUoweth. 
 
 I. The legislator in all commonwealths, is pnly the sovereign, be he one N 
 man, as in a monarchy, or one assembly of men, as in a democracy, or 
 aristocracy. For the legislator is he that maketh the law. And the 
 commonwealth only prescribes and commandeth the observation of those 
 
124 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 /rules, which we call law : therefore the commonwealth is the legislator. 
 / But the commonwealth is no person, nor has capacity to do anything, but 
 / by the representative, that is, the sovereign ; and therefore, the sovereign is 
 [ the sole legislator. For the same reason, none can abrogate a law made, 
 \ ~Uut the .sovereign ; because a law is not abrogated, but by another law, 
 \ that forbiddelh it to be put in execution. 
 
 2. The sovereign of aj ^anmonwealth, be it an assembly or one man, is 
 not subjecFto the civil laws. For having power to make and repeal laws, 
 he~may when he pleaseth free himself from that subjection, by repealing 
 those laws that trouble him and making of new; and consequently he was free 
 before. For he is free, that can be free when he will : nor is it possible for 
 any person to be bound to himself ; because he that can bind, can release ; 
 and thererore he that is bound to himself only, is not bound. 
 
 3. When long use obtaineth the authority of a law, it is not the length of 
 time that maketh the authority, but the will of the sovereigii signified by 
 his>ilence, for silence i s somet imes an argument of consent ; and it is no 
 longer law, than the TSovereign" sEalFBe silent therein. And therefore if 
 the sovereign shall have a question of right grounded, not upon his present 
 will, but upon the laws formerly made ; the length of time shall bring no 
 prejudice to his right ; but the question shall be judged by equity.- For 
 many unjust actions and unjust sentences go uncontrolled a longer time 
 than any man can remember. And our lawyers account no customs law 
 but such as are reasonable, and that evil customs are to be abolished. 
 But the judgment of what is reasonable and of what is to be abolished 
 belongeth to him that maketh the law, which is the sovereign assembly or 
 monarch. 
 
 4. The law of Nature and the civil law, contain each other, and are of 
 equal extent. For the la.ws_j)f_Nature, which consist in equity, justice, 
 
 ^ gratitude, and o ther m oral virtues'e«~thgge"aepending, in the condition of 
 ^ mere nature, as 1 have saacl "belore m "ihe enTof the fifteenth chapter, are 
 notgiD.perly.laws, .l'j!!,ijiiiilijji > Ijjul <^|i]wiiM|jneaJ o.^eace and ohfdience. 
 Wfien a commonwealth is once settle3ttl7en~gfetliey~ actually 'ia^," and 
 not before ; as being then the commands of the commonwealth ; and 
 therefore also civil laws : for it is the sovereign power that obliges men to 
 obey them. For in the differences of private men, to declare what is 
 equity, what is justice, and what is moral virtue, and to make them bind- 
 ing, there is need of the ordinances of sovereign power, and punishments 
 to be ordained for such as shall break them ; which ordinances are there- 
 fore part of tlie civil law. The law of Nature therefore is a part of the 
 civil law in all commonwealths of the world. Reciprocally also, the civil 
 law is a part of the dictates of Nature. For justice, that is to say, perform- 
 ance of covenant, and giving to every man his own, is a dictate of the law 
 of Nature. But every subject in a commonwealth hath covenanted to obey 
 the civil law ; either one with another, as when they assemble to make a 
 common representative, or with tlie representative itself one by one, when 
 subdued by the sword they promise obedience, that they may receive life ; 
 arid thei^fiare Qbedience^ to the-civil- law -is-part -ako-of-thelaxv-Trf- Nature. 
 Civil and natural law are not different kinds, but different parts of law ; 
 whereof one part being written, is called civil, the other unwritten, natural. 
 But the right of nature, that is, the natural liberty of man, may by the civil 
 law be abridged and restrained : nay, the end of making laws is no other 
 but such restraint ; without the which there cannot possibly be any peace. 
 And law was brought into the world for nothing else but to limit the 
 natural liberty of particular men, in such manner as they might not hurt, 
 but assist one another, and join togethe:' against a common enemy. 
 
 5. If the sovereign of one commonwealih subdue a people that have lived 
 
OF CIVIL LA WS. 125 
 
 under other written laws, and afterwards govern tliem by the same laws by 
 which they were governed before ; yet those laws are the civil laws of tlie 
 victor, and not of the vanquished commonwealth. For the legislator is he, 
 inot by whose authority the laws were first made, but by whose authority 
 tliey now continue to be laws. And therefore where there be divers pro- 
 vinces within the dominion of a commonwealth, and in those provinces 
 diversity of laws, which commonly are called the customs of each several 
 province, we are not to understand that such customs have their force only 
 from length of time ; but that they were anciently laws written, or other- 
 wise made known, for the constitutions and statutes of their sovereigns ; and 
 are now laws, not by virtue of the prescription of time, but by the consti- 
 tutions of their present sovereigns. But if an unwritten law, in all the pro- 
 vinces of a dominion, shall be generally observed, and no iniquity appear in 
 the use thereof; that law can be no other but a law of Nature, equally 
 obliging all mankind. 
 
 6. Seeing then all laws, written and unwritten, have their authority and 
 force from the will of the commonwealth, that is to say, from the will of 
 the representative, which in a monarchy is the monarch, and in other com- 
 monwealths the sovereign assembly ; a man may wonder from whence pro- 
 ceed such opinions as are found in the books of lawyers of eminence in 
 several commonwealths, directly or by consequence making the legislative 
 power depend on private men, or subordinate judges. As for example, 
 " that the common law hath no controller but the parliament ; " which is 
 true only where a parliament has the sovereign power, and cannot be 
 assembled nor dissolved but by their own discretion. For if there be a 
 right in any else to dissolve them, there is a right also ta control them, and 
 consequently to control their controllings. And if there be no such right, 
 then the controller of laws is not parliamentum, but rex in parliamento. 
 And where a parliament is sovereign, if it should assemble never so many 
 or so wise men from the countries subject to them, for whatsoever cause ; 
 yet there is no man will believe that.6uch an assembly hath thereby acquired 
 to themselves a legislative power. \^ Item " that -ihe two ai n^_ of a comm on- 
 wealtli, are ' ' force and justice j the first whereot is m the king, tne other 
 deposited in the hands of the parliament." As if a commonwealth could 
 consist, where the- force were ill any hand, which justice had not the 
 authority to command and govern/ 
 
 7. That law can never be against_rgaion pur lawyers are agreed; and 
 that not the'TetTfr^^t^ evefycnnslruction of it. \i^]\JiJiJi\ wliiflT iatirprvrrl- 
 in g_tQ the intention dt iKe TgffaTfff, Ja.t Tipm v. And it is true, but the 
 do^ibt is of whose reason it isthat shall be received for law. It is not 
 meant of any private reason, for then there would be as much contradiction 
 in the laws as there is in the schools ; nor yet, as Sir Edward Coke makes 
 it, an "artificial perfection of reason, gotten by long study, observation, 
 and experience," as his was.- For it is possible long study may increase 
 and confirm erroneous sentences, and where men build on false grounds, 
 the more they build the greater is the ruin : and of those that study and 
 observe with equal time and diligence, the reason and resolutions are, and 
 must remain, discordant, and therefore it«is not that juris prudentia or 
 wisdom of subordinate judges ; but the reason of this our artificial man the 
 commonwealth, and his command that raaketh law : and the common- 
 wealth being in their representative but one person, there cannot easily 
 arise any contradiction in the laws; and when there doth, the same reason 
 is able, by interpretation or alteration, to take it away. In all courts of 
 justice, the sovereign, which is the.,person of the commonwealth, is he that 
 judj^etli 7TEe"snbordinate judge ought toTiave regard to the reason which 
 moved his sovereign to make such law that his sentence may be according 
 
126 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 tliereunto, which then is his sovereign's sentence, otherwise it is his own, 
 and an unjust one. . , . 
 
 8. From this that the law is a command, and a command consisteth m 
 declaration or manifestation of the will of him that commandeth, by voice, 
 writing, or some other sufficient argument of the same, we may understand 
 that the command of the_commonwealtb. is law only_iaJ;hg se that ha ve 
 _meani.to3^Ti6tice of it." Over naturaljfools, children,-6H;-mad«ie% tfieie 
 is no laWj^Ao more than over brute beasts, nor are they capable of the title 
 ot jiJiror unjust ; because they had never power to make any covenant, or 
 to imdersland the consequences thereof, and consequently never took upon 
 them to authorize the actions of any sovereign, as they must do that make 
 to themselves a commonwealth. And as those from whom nature or acci- 
 dent hath taken away the notice of all laws in general ; so also every man 
 from whom any accident, not proceeding from his own default, hath taken 
 away the means to take notice of any particular law, is excused if he observe 
 it not, and, to speak properly, that law is no law to him_. It is therefore 
 necessary to consider in this place what arguments and signs be sufficient 
 for the knowledge of what is the law, that is to say, what is the will of the 
 sovereign as well in monarchies as in other forms of government. 
 
 And first, if it be a law that obliges all the subjects without exception, and 
 is not written, nor otherwisfe published in such places as they may take 
 notice thereof, it is a law of Nature. For whatsoever men are to take 
 knowledge of for law, not upon other men's words, but every one from his 
 own reason, must be such as is agreeable to the reason of all men '; which 
 no law can be, but the law of Nature. The laws of^ Nature therefore need 
 not any publishing, nor proclamation; as C)eing ^contained in this one 
 sentence, approved by all the world, " Do not that to anotheii.B'JliQh thou 
 thinkest unreasonable to be done by another tq^ thyself." 
 
 Secondly, if it be a'law that obliges only some condition of men, or one 
 particular man, and be not written, nor published by word, then also it ' is 
 a law of Nature ; and known by the same arguments and signs that 
 distinguish those in such a condition from other subjects. ,Eat.^atsoever 
 law is not written, or some way published by him that makes.it law, can 
 Be lintTwn no_way, -buf by the reasoti of "hini 'that i fs to jab e y- i t ; and is 
 (EESlScEMse_a_jawnoijpnly_i3vil,_iuL.3iatiiiaLl"T''or example, if the 
 sovereign employ a public minister, without written instructions what to 
 do ; he is obliged to take for instructions the dictates of reason ; as if he 
 make a judge, the judge is to take notice that his sentence ought to be 
 according to the reason of his sovereign, which being always understood to 
 be equity, he is bound to it by the law of Nature : or if an ambassador, he 
 is, in all things not contained in his written instructions, to take for 
 instruction that which reason dictates to be most conducing to his sove- 
 reign's interest ; and io'of all cSthfer. ministers of the sovereignty, public and 
 private. All which instructions of natural reason may be comprehended 
 under one name of " fidelity ; " which is a branch of natural justice. 
 
 The law of Nature excepted, it beIongeth'"R)"'the essence oif all other laws, 
 to be made known, to every man that shall be obliged to obey them, either 
 by word, or writing, or some other act, known to proceed from the 
 sovereign authority. For the will of another cannot be understood, but by 
 his own word, or act, or by conjecture taken from his scope and purpose ; 
 which in the person of the commonwealth is to be supposed always 
 consonant to equity, and reason. And in ancient time, before letters were 
 in common use, the laws were many times put into verse ; that the rude 
 people taking pleasure in singing or reciting them, might the more easily 
 retain them in memory. And for the same reason Solomon (Prov. vii. 3) 
 adviseth a man to bind the ten commandments upon his ten fingers. And 
 
Of CIVIL LAWS. 12? 
 
 for the law which Moses gave to the people of Israel af the renewing of the 
 covenant (Deut. xi. 19), he biddeth them to teach it their children, by 
 discoursing of it both at home and upon the way ; at going to bed, and at 
 rising from bed ; and to write it upon the posts and doors of their houses ; 
 and (Deut. xxxi. 12) to assemble the people, man, woman, and child, to 
 hear it read. 
 
 Nor is it enough the law be written and published ; but also that there be 
 manifest signs that it proceedeth from the will of the sovereign. For 
 private men, when they have, or think they have, force enough to secure 
 their unjust designs, and convoy them safely to their ambitious ends, may 
 publish for laws what they please, without or against the legislative 
 authority. There.js__tljsigf^e_requi^e^ not only a.dg6laxaJtipn,of-t-he law, 
 but also sufficient signs of the author^cTauthprity.) The author of legis- 
 later is suyposettirt^eve^TSinraonwealtli to be evident, because he is the 
 sovereign, who having been constituted by the consent of every one, is sup- 
 posed by every one to be sufficiently known. And though the ignorance 
 and security of men be sudi, for the most part, as that when the memory of 
 the first constitution of their commonwealth is worn out, tliey do not con- 
 sider by whose power they used to be defended against their enemies, and 
 to have their industry protected, and to be righted when injury is done 
 them ; yet because no man that considers, can make question of it, no excuse 
 can be derived from the ignorance of where the sovereignty is placed. And 
 it is a dictate of natural reason, and consequently an evident law of Nature, 
 that no man ought to weaken that power, the protection whereof he hatli 
 himself demanded, or wittingly received against others. Therefore of who 
 is sovereign, no man, but by his own fault (whatsoever evil men suggest), 
 can make any doubt The difficulty consisteth in the evidence of the 
 authority derived from him j the removing whereof dependeth on the 
 knowledge of the public rfegisters, public counsels, public ministers, and 
 public seals ; by which all laws are sufficiently verified ; verified, I say, 
 not authorized : for the verification is but the testimony and record, not 
 the authority of the law ; which consisteth in the command of the sovereign 
 only. 
 
 If therefore a manliavea question of injury, depending on the law of 
 Nature ; that is to say, on common equity ; the sentence of the judge, that 
 by commission hath authority to take cognizance of such causes, is a sufficient 
 verification of the law of Nature in that individual case. Jb'or though the 
 advice of one that professeth the study of the law be useful for the avoiding 
 of contention ; yet it is but advice : it is the judge must tell men what is 
 law, upon the hearing of the controversy. 
 
 But when the question is of injury, or crime, upon a written law ; every 
 m.in by recourse to the registers, by himself or others, may, if he will, be 
 sufficiently informed, before he do such injury, or commit the crime, whether 
 it be an injury or not : nay, he ought to do so : for when a man doubts 
 whether the act he goeth about be just orunjust ; and may inform himself, 
 if he will ; the doing is unlawful. In like manner, he that supposeth him- 
 self injured, in a case determined by the written law, which he may, by 
 himself or others, see and consider ; if he complain before he consults with 
 the law, he does unjustly, and bewrayeth a disposition rather to vex other 
 men than to demand his own right. 
 
 If the question be of obedience to a public officer ; to have seen his com- 
 mission, with the public seal, and heard it read ; or to have had the means 
 to be informed of it, if a man would, is a sufficient verification of his 
 authority. For every man is obliged to do his best endeavour to inform 
 himself of all written laws, that may concern his own future actions. 
 
 The legislator known ; and the laws, either by writing or by the light of 
 
128 OF COMMONWEALTIt. 
 
 Nature, sufficiently published ; there wanteth yet another very material cif- 
 cumstance to make them obligatory. For it is not the letter, but the 
 intendment or meaning, that is to say, the authentic interpretation of the 
 law (which is the sense of the legislator), in which the nature of the law 
 consisteth ; and therefore the interpretation of all laws dependelh on the 
 authority sovereign ; and the interpreters can be none but those which the 
 sovereign, to whom only the subject oweth obedience, shall appoint. For 
 else, by the craft of an interpreter, the law may be made to bear a sense 
 contrary to that of the sovereign, by which means the interpreter becomes 
 the legislator. 
 
 All laws, written and unwritten, have need of interpretation. The un- 
 written law of Nature, though it be easy to such as, without partiality and 
 passion, make use of their natural reason, and therefore leaves the violators 
 tliereof without excuse ; yet considering there be very few, perhaps none, 
 that in some cases are not blinded by self-love or some other passion, it is 
 now become of all laws the most obscure, and has consequently the greatest 
 need of able interpreters. The written laws, if they be short, are easily 
 misinterpreted, from the divers significations of a word or two : if long, 
 they be more obscure by the divers significations of many words : insomuch 
 as no written law, delivered in few or many words, can be well understood, 
 without a perfect understanding of the final causes for which the law was 
 made, the knowledge of which final causes is in the legislator. To him there- 
 fore there cannot be any knot in the law insoluble ; either by finding out the 
 end.=, to undo it by ; or else by making what ends he will, as Alexander 
 did with his sword in the Gordian knot, by the legislative power, whicli no 
 other interpreter can do. 
 
 The interpretation of the laws of Nature in a commonwealth dependeth 
 not on the books of moral philosophy. The authority of writers, without 
 the authority of the commonwealth, maketh not their opinions law, be they 
 never so true. That which I have written in this treatise concerning the 
 moral .virtues, and of their necessity for the- procuringand maintamjag peace, 
 .though it be evid,epttmthMsnot therefore presently lawj^^ut—hecause in 
 all commonwentliilftflK'y7orlHT!t"i pafTof the'civil law. For th ough it 
 •bb ^n ata r a lly r ea6«t«^)ler^ietiUsj2yill£L.50Kereigri.po«ier thatit Is iaw : other- 
 wise, it were a great error to call the laws of Nature unwritten law ; whereof 
 we see so many volumes published, and in them so many contradictions of 
 one another and of themselves. 
 
 The interpretation of the law "of Nature, is the sentence of the judge 
 constituted by the sovereign authority, to hear and determine such contro- 
 versies as depend thereon ; and consisteth in the application of the law to 
 the present case. For in the act of judicature, the judge doth no more but 
 consider whether the demand of the party be consonant to natural reason 
 and equity ; and the sentence he giveth is therefore the interpretation of the 
 law of Nature ; which interpretation is authentic ; not because it is his 
 private sentence ; but because he giveth it by authority of the sovereign, 
 whereby it becomes the sovereign's sentence, which is law for that time, to 
 the parties pleading. 
 
 But because there is no judge subordinate, nor sovereign, but may err in 
 a judgment of equity ; if afterward in another like case he find it more 
 consonant to equity-to give a contrary sentence, he is obliged to do it. 
 No man's error becomes his own law ; nor obliges him to persist in it. 
 Neither, for the same reason, becomes it a law to other judges, though 
 sworn to follow it. For though a wrong sentence given by authority of the 
 sovereign, if he know and allow it, in such laws as are mutable, be a 
 constitution of a new law, in cases in which every little circumstance is the 
 same ; yet in laws immutable, such as are the laws of Nature, tliey are no 
 
OF CIVIL LAWS. 129 
 
 laws to the same or otlier judges, in the like cases for ever after. Princes 
 succeed one another ; and one judge passeth, another comelh ; nay, heaven 
 and earth shall pass ; but not one^ftle of the law of Nature shall pass ; for 
 it is the eternal law of God. therefore Wl the sentences of precedent 
 judges that Ime ever been, caimot altogether make a law contrary to 
 natural equit)?^ nor any examples of former judges, can warrant an 
 unreasonable wntence, or discharge the present judge of the trouble of 
 studying what is equity, in the case he is to judge, from the principlesof 
 his own natural reason. For example sake, it is agai rit Ihn livw rrf-Wffilre 
 "in pnn Uh i\^ jpnrj^ ent ;" and innocent is he that acquitteth himself 
 judicially, and is acknowledged for innocent by the judge. Put the case 
 now, that a man is accused of a capital crime, and seeing the power and 
 malice of some enemy, and the frequent corruption and partiality of judges, 
 runneth away for fear of the event, and afterwards is taken, and brought to 
 a legal trial, and maketh it sufficiently appear he was not guilty of the 
 crime, and being thereof acquitted, is nevertheless condemned to lose his 
 goods ; this is a manifest condemnation of the innocent. I say therefore 
 that there is no place in the world, where this can be an interpretation of 
 a law of Nature, or be made a law by the sentences of precedent judges, 
 that had done the same. For he that judged it first, judged unjustly ; and 
 no injustice can be a pattern of judgment to succeeding judges. A written 
 law may forbid innocent men to fly, and they may be punished for flying : 
 but that flying for fear of injury should be taken for presumption of guilt, 
 after a man is already absolved of the crime judicially, is contraiy to the . 
 nature of a presumption, which hath no place after judgment given. Yet 
 this is set down by a great lawyer for the common law of England. " If a 
 man, " saith he, " that is innocent, be accused of felony, and for fear flyeth 
 for the same ; albeit he judicially acquitteth himself of the felony ; yet if it 
 be found that he fled for the felony, he shall notwithstanding, his iunocency, 
 forfeit all his goods, chattels, debts, and duties. For as to the forfeiture of 
 them, the law will admit no proof against the presumption in law, grounded 
 upon his flight." Here you see "an innocent man judicially acquitted, 
 notwithstanding his innocency," when no written law forbad him to fly, 
 after his acquittal, " upon a presumption in law," condemned to lose all the 
 goods he hath. If the law ground upon his flight a presumption of the fact, 
 which was capital, the sentence ought to have been capital : if the presump- 
 tion were not of the fact, for what then ought he to lose his goods ? This 
 therefore is no law of England ; nor is the condemnation grounded upon a 
 presumption of law, but upon the presumption of the judges. It is also 
 against law, to say that proof shall be admitted against a presumption of law. 
 For all judges, sovereign and subordinate, if they refuse to hearproof, refuse 
 to do justice : for though the sentence be just, yet the judges that condemn 
 without hearing the proofs offered, are unjust judges ; and their presumption 
 is but prejudice ; which no man ought to bring with him to the seat of 
 justice, whatsoever precedent judgments or examples he shall pretend to 
 follow. There be other things of this nature, wherein men's judgments have 
 been perverted, by trusting to precedents : but this is enough to show, that 
 though the sentence of the judge be a law to the party pleading, yet it is 
 no law to any judge that shall succeed him in that office. 
 
 In like manner, when question is of the meaning of written laws, he is 
 not the interpreter of them, that writeth, a commentary upon them. For 
 commentaries are commonly more subject to cavil than the text ; and 
 therefore need other commentaries ; and so there will be no end of such 
 interpretation. And therefore unless there be an interpreter authorized by 
 the sovereign, from which the subordinate judges are not to recede, the in- 
 terpreter can be no other than the ordinary judges, in the same manner as 
 
130 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 they are in cases of the unwritten law ; and their sentences are to be taken 
 by them that plead for laws in that particular case ; but not to bind other 
 judges in like cases to give like judgments. For a judge may err in the in- 
 terpretation even of written laws ; but no error of a subordinate judge can 
 change the law, which is the general sentence of the sovereign. 
 
 In written laws, men use to make a difference between the letter and the 
 sentence of the law : and when by the letter is meant whatsoever can be 
 gathered by the bare words, it is well distinguished. For the significations 
 of almost all words are either in themselves, or in the metaphorical use of 
 them, ambiguous ; and may be drawn in argument, to mstke many senses ; 
 but there is only one sense of the law. But if by the letter be meant the 
 literal sense, then the letter and the sentence or intention of the law, is all 
 one. For the literal sense is that which the legislator intended should by 
 the letter of the law be signified. Now the intention of the legislator 
 is always supposed to be equity ; for it were a great contumely for a judge - 
 to think otherwise of the sovereign. He ought therefore, if the word of the 
 law do not fully authorize a reasonable sentence, to supply it with the law 
 of Nature ; or if the case be difficult, to respite judgment till he have re- 
 ceived more ample authority. For example, a wriiten law ordaineth that he 
 
 I f ' of Nature ; or if the case be difficult, to respite judgment till he have re- 
 
 \ y ceived more ample authority. For example, a wriiten law ordaineth that he 
 
 jf ^ -Sk which is thrust out of his house by force shall be restored by force : it 
 
 If '"^ happens that a man by negligence leaves his house empty, and returning is 
 y. ^ v" kept out by force, in which case there is no special law ordained. It 
 
 \ 
 
 is evident that this case is contained in the same law : for else there is no 
 _ ^^ remedy for him at all ; which is to be supposed against the intention of the 
 )' legislator. Again, the word of the law commandeth to judge according to 
 
 j . the eridence : a man is accused falsely of a fact, which the judge himself 
 } ^ saw done by another, and not by him that is accused. In this case neither 
 shall the letter of the law be followed to the condemnation of the innocent, 
 nor shall the judge give s'fentence against the evidence of the witnesses ; be- 
 cause the letter of the law is to the contrary ; but procure of the sovereign 
 that another be made judge, and himself witness. So that the incommodity 
 that follows the bare words of a written law may lead him to the intention 
 of the law, whereby to interpret the same the better; though no in- 
 commodity can warrant a sentence against the law. For every judge 
 of right and wrong is not judge of what is commodious or incommodious to 
 the commonwealth. 
 
 The abilities required in a good interpreter of the law, that is to say, in a 
 good judge, are not the same with those of an advocate ; namely, the study 
 of the laws. For a judge, as he ought to take notice of the fact from none 
 but the witnesses ; so also he ought to take notice of the law from nothing 
 but the statutes and constitutions of the sovereign, alleged in the pleading, 
 or declared to him by some that have authority from the sovereign power to 
 declare them ; and need not take care beforehand what he shall judge j for 
 it shall be given him what he shall say concerning the fact, by witnesses ; 
 and what he shall say in point of law, from those that shall in their pleadings 
 show it, and by authority interpret it upon the place. The Lords of par- 
 liament in England were judges, and most difficult causes have been heard 
 and determined by thera ; yet few of them were much versed in the study 
 of the laws, and fewer had made profession of them ; and though they con. 
 suited with lavi^ers, that were appointed to be present there for that pur- 
 pose, yet they alone had the authority of giving sentence. In like manner, 
 in the ordinary trials of right, twelve men of the common people are the 
 judges, and give sentence, not only of the fact, but of the right; and 
 pronounce simply for the complainant, or for the defendant ; that is to say, 
 are judges, not only of the fact, but also of the right : and in a question of 
 crime, not only determine whether done, or not done ; but also whether it 
 
OF CIVIL LAWS. 131 
 
 be '■ murder," '"homicide," " felony, "assault," and the like, which are de» 
 terminations of law : but because they are not supposed to know the law of 
 themselves, there is one that hath authority to inform them of it, in the 
 particular case they are to judge of. But yet if they judge not according to 
 that he tells them, they are not subject thereby to any penalty ; unless it be 
 made appear that they did it against their consciences, or had been 
 corrupted by reward. 
 
 The things that make a good judge or good interpreter of the laws are, 
 first, "a right understanding" of that principal law of Nature called 
 "equity," which depending not on the reading of other men's writings, but 
 on the goodness of a man's own natural reason and meditation, is presumed 
 to be in those most that have had most leisure, and had the most inclina- 
 tion to meditate thereon. Secondly, " contempt of unnecessary riches and 
 preferments. " Thirdly, " to be able in judgment to divest himself of all fear, 
 anger, hatred, love, and compassion." Fourthly, and lastly, " patience to 
 hear, diligent attention in hearing, and memory to retain, digest and apply 
 what he hath heard." 
 
 The diiference and division of the laws has been made in divers manners, 
 according to the different methods of those men that have written of them. 
 For it is a thing that dependeth not on nature, but on the scope of the 
 writer, and is subservient to every man's proper method. In the Institu- 
 tions of Justinian, we find seven sorts of civil laws. 
 
 1. The " edicts," " constitutions," and " epistles of the prince," that is, 
 of the emperor, because the whole power of the people was in him. Like 
 these are the proclamations of the kings of England. 
 
 2. "The decrees of the whole people of Rome," comprehending the 
 senate, when they were put to the question by the "senate." These were 
 laws at first by the virtue of the sovereign power residing in the people ; 
 and such of them as by the emperors were not abrogated, remained laws 
 by the authority imperial. For all laws that bind are understood to be laws 
 by his authority that has power to repeal them. Somewhat like to these 
 laws are the acts of parliamerit in England. 
 
 3. " The decrees of the common people," excluding the senate, when 
 they were put to the question by the "tribune " of the people. For such 
 of them as were not abrogated by the emperors remained laws by the 
 authority imperial. Like to these were the orders of the House of Com- 
 mons in England. 
 
 4. Senatus totisuUa, the "orders of the senate ;" because when the people 
 of Rome grew so numerous as it was inconvenient to assemble them ; it 
 was thought fit by the emperor that men should consult the senate, 
 instead of the people ; and these have some resemblance with the acts of 
 council. 
 
 5. " The edicts of praetors," and in some cases of " sediles ;" such-as are 
 the chief justices in the courts of England. 
 
 6. Responsa pnidentum, which were the sentences and opinion of those 
 lawyers to whom the emperor gave authority to interpret the law, and to 
 give answer to such as in matter of law demanded then: advice ; which 
 answers, the judges in giving judgment were obliged by the constitutions of 
 the emperor to observe, and should be like the rfeports of cases judged, if 
 other judges be by the law of England bound to observe them. For the 
 judges of the common law of England are not propesly judges, but juris 
 consulti, of whom the judges, who are either the Lords, or twelve men of the 
 country, are in point of law to ask advice. \ ~) 
 ["J. Also "unwritten customs," which in their own nature are an imitation 1 / 
 of law, by the tacit consent of the emperor, in case they be not contrary XifJ ■ 
 Uie law of Nature, are very laws. 
 
132 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Another division of laws is into " natural " and " positive." " Natui-al " 
 are those vifhich have been laws from all eternity ; and are called not only 
 "natural" but also " moral" laws ; consisting in the moral virtues, as 
 justice, equity, and all habits of the mind that conduce to peace and 
 charity, of which I have already spoken in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 chapters. 
 
 " Positive " are those which have not been from eternity ; but have been 
 made laws by the will of those that have had the sovereign power over 
 others; and are eitlier written or made known to men by some other 
 argument of the will of their legislator. 
 
 Again, of positive laws some are "human," some "divine;" and of 
 human positive laws some are " distrihntive." some '^LfiSaa'-" "Distribu- 
 tive " are tliose that determine the rights of the subjects, declaring to every 
 man what it is by which he acquireth and holdeth a propriety in lands or 
 goods, and a right or liberty of action : and these speak to all the subjects. 
 " Penal " are those which declare what penalty shall be inflicted on those 
 that violate the law ; and speak to the ministers and officers ordained for 
 execution. For though every one ought to be informed of the punisliments 
 ordained beforehand for their transgression, nevertheless the command is 
 not addressed to the delinquent, who cannot be supposed will faithfully 
 punish himself, but to public ministers appointed to see the penalty executed. 
 And these penal laws are for the most part written together with the laws 
 distributive ; and are sometimes called judgments. For all laws are general 
 judgments, or sentences of the legislator ; as also every particular judgment 
 is a law to him whose case is judged. 
 
 " Divine positive laws " (for natural laws being eternal and universal are 
 all divine) are those which Ijeing the commandments of God, not from all 
 eternity, nor universally addressed to all men, but only to a certain people, 
 or to certain persons, are declared for such by those whom God hath 
 authorized to declare them. But this authority of man to declare what 
 be these positive laws of God, how can it be known ? God may command 
 a man by a supernatural way to deliver laws to other men. But because it 
 is of the. essence of law, that he who is to be obliged be assurgjlof the 
 autijQiity of him that declareth it, which we. pannptnajiually takeiiotice to 
 beJjoiB God, "JiQW can a man without supernatural revelation be assured 
 of the revelation receiygjj by the declarer?" and "how can he be bound to 
 obey them?" For the first question, liow a man can be assured of the 
 "revelation of another, without a revelation particularly to himself, it is 
 evidently impossible. For though a man may be induced to believe such 
 revelation from the miracles they see him do, or from seeing the extraordi- 
 nary sanctity of his life, or from seeing the extraordinary wisdom or extra- 
 ordinary felicity of his actions, all which are marks of God's extraordinary 
 favour ; yet they are not assured evidences of special revelation. Miracles 
 are marvellous works ; but that which is marvellous to one, may not be so 
 to another. Sanctity may be feigned ; and the visible felicities of -this 
 world are most often the work of God by natural and ordinary causes. And 
 therefore no man can infallibly know by natural reason that another has 
 had a supernatural revelation of God's will, but only a belief ; every one, 
 as the signs thereof shall appear greater or lesser, a firmer or a weaker 
 belief. 
 
 Bu^or tlie second, how can he be bound to obey them ; it is not so hard. 
 For fif the law declared be not against the law of Nature, which is 
 undoubtedly God's law, and he^ndertake to obey it, he is bound by his 
 own act ;' boutid I say to obey i^ but n ot - bound tu bLl i ir ve~n : for men's 
 "BHlieTaHd interior cogitations are not subject to the commands, but only to 
 the operation of God, ordinary or extraordinary. Faith of supernatural law 
 
OF CIVIL LAWS. 133 
 
 IS not a fulfilling, but only an assenting to the same ; and not a duty that we 
 exhibit to God, but a gift which God freely giveth to whom He pleaseth ; as 
 also unbelief is not a breach of any of His laws ; but a rejection of them all, 
 except the laws natural. But this that I say, will be made yet clearer by 
 the examples and testimonies concerning this point in Holy Scripture. The 
 covenant God made with Abraham, in a supernatural manner, was thus 
 (Gen. xvii. lo) : " Tliis is the covenant which thou shalt observe between me 
 and thee, and thy seed after thee." Abraham's seed had not this revelation, 
 nor were yet in being ; yet they are a party to the covenant, and bound to 
 obey what Abraham should declare to them for God's law ; which they 
 could not be, but in virtue of the obedience they owed to their parents ; 
 who, if they be subject to no other earthly power, as here in the case of 
 Abraham, have sovereii^n power over their children and servants. Again, 
 where God saith to Abraham, " In thee shall all nations of the earth be 
 ble-sed ; for I know thou wilt command thy children, and thy house after 
 thee, to keep the way of the Lord, and to observe righteousness and judg- 
 ment," it is manifest, the obedience of his family, who had no revelation, 
 depended on their former obligation to obey their sovereign. At Mount 
 Sinai Moses only went up to God ; the people were forbidden to approach 
 on pain of death ; yet they were bound to obey all that Moses declared to 
 them for God's law. Upon what ground, but on this submission of their 
 own, " Speak thou to us and we will hear thee ; but let not God speak to 
 us, lest we die?" Ey which two places it sufficiently appeareth, that in a 
 commonwealth, a subject that has no certain and assured revelation particu- 
 larly to himself concerning the will of God, is to obey for such the command 
 of the commonwealth : for if men were at liberty to take for God's com- 
 mandments their own dreams and fancies, or the dreams and fancies of 
 private men ; scarce two men would agree upon what is God's command- 
 ment ; and yet in respect of them, every man would despise the command- 
 ments of the commonwealth. I conclude therefore, that in all things not 
 contrary to the moral law, that is to say, to the law of Nature, all subjects 
 are bound to obey that for divine law, which is declared to be so by the 
 laws of the commonwealth. Which also is evident to any man's reason ; 
 for whatsoever is not against the law of Nature, may be made law in the 
 name of them that have the sovereign power ; and there is no reason men 
 should be the less obliged by it, when it is propounded in the name of God. 
 Besides, there is no place in the world where men are permitted to pretend 
 other commandments of God than are declared for such by the common- 
 wealth. Christian states punish those that revolt from the Christian religion, 
 and all other states those that set up any religion by them forbidden. (For 
 in whatsoever is not regulated by the commonwealth, it is equity, which is 
 the law of Nature, and -therefore an eternal law of God, that every man 
 equally enjoy his liberty^ 
 
 There is also anothei'aistinction of laws into "fundamental" and "not 
 fundamental;" but I could never see in any author what a fundamental 
 law signifieth. Nevertheless one may very reasonably distinguish laws in 
 that manner- 
 
 For a l imdamentaU aw in every commonwealth is that, which being 
 takeu-ajEajl^Jhecommonwealth failetli and is utterly dissolved ; as a build- 
 ing whose foun3arioil~is'3estroye3. And therefore "a" fundamental law is 
 that, by which subjects are bound to uphold whatsoever power is given to 
 the sovereign, whether a monarch or a sovereign assembly, without which 
 the commonwealth cannot stand ; such as is the power of war and peace, of 
 judicature, of election of officers, and of doing whatsoever he shall think 
 necessary for the public good. IJotlundamental is that, the abrogating 
 whergofdraweth riot_witlLiLthe„dlsioIun5irBnKe'com as 
 
134 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 are the laws concerning controversies between suliject and subject. Thus 
 much of the division of laws. 
 
 I find the words lex civilis and Jus civile, that is to say ' ' law " and 
 "right civil," promiscuously used for the same thing, even in the most 
 learned authors ; which nevertheless ought not to be so. For " rjghtJ^ia- 
 " liberty, ---nanrehjhat libejty^ijduch_,tSe:jiviUaw- ie9iX£SJ^ : llUL-iiciwl 
 law " JS^m-TSBfigatTonT'^andtakesfrom us. the libertvwEch the J aw o f 
 NSure-gave-us. Nature ^veTrigRf to every man to secure himselt by 
 his own strengtii, and to invade a suspected neiglibour, by way of preven- ^ 
 tion : but the civil law takes away that liberty, in all cases where the pro- 
 tection of Ihe law may be safely stayed for. Insomuch as lex and pis are 
 as different as "obligation" and "liberty." 
 
 Likewise " laws" and "charters" are taken promiscuously for the same 
 thing. Yet charters are donations of the sovereign ; and not laws, but 
 exemptions from law. The phrase of a law is, jubeo, injungo, " I com- 
 mand " and " enjoin : " the phrase of a charter is, dedi, concessi, " I have 
 given,'' " I have granted : " but what is given or granted to a man is not 
 forced upon him by a law. A law may be made to bind all the subjects of 
 a commonwealth : a liberty or charter is only to one man, or some one part 
 of the people. For to say all the people of a commonwealth have liberty 
 in any case whatsoever, is to say, that in such case there hath been no law 
 made ; or else having been made, is now abrogated. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 0/ Crimes, Excuses, and Extenuations. 
 
 A SIN, is not only a transgression of a law, but also any contempt of the 
 legislator. For such contempt is a breach of all his laws at once. And 
 therefore may consist, not only in the " commission " of a fact, or in 
 speaking of words by the laws forbidden, or in the " omission " of what the 
 law commandeth, but also in the " intention," or purpose to transgress. 
 For the purpose to break the law is some degree of contempt of him to 
 whom it belongeth to see it executed. To be delighted in the imagination 
 only of being possessed of another man's goods, sei-vants, or wife, without 
 any intention to take them from him by force or fraud, is no breach of the 
 law, that saith, " Thou shalt not covet : " nor is the pleasure a man may 
 have in imagining or dreaming of the death of him, from whose life he 
 expecteth nothing but damage and displeasure, a sin ;>but the resolving to 
 put some act in execution that tendeth thereto. For(to be pleased in the 
 fiction of that which would please a man if it were real, is a passion so 
 adherent to the nature both of man and every-other living creature, as to 
 make it a sin, were to make sin of being a many The consideration of this 
 has made me think them too severe, both to themselves and others, that 
 maintain that the first motions of the mind, though checked with the fear 
 of God, be sins. But I confess it is safer to err on that hand than on the 
 other. 
 
 A " crime," is a sin, consisting in the committing, by deed or word, of 
 that which the law forbiddeth, or the omission of what it hath commanded. 
 So that eveiy crime is a sin ; but not every sin a crime. To intend to 
 steal, or kill, is a sin, though it never appear in word or fact: for God 
 that seeth the thoughts of man, can lay it to his charge : but till it appear 
 by something done, or said, by which the intention may be argiied by a 
 
OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, ETC. 135 
 
 human judge, it hath not the name of crime : which distinction the Greeks 
 observed in the word iiidpTrj/ia, and lyK\rifui, or mrla ; whereof the former, 
 which is translated " sin," signifieth any swerving from the law whatsoever ; 
 but Xhe two latter, which are translated "crime," signify that sin only, 
 whereof one man may accuse another. But of intentions, which never 
 appear by any outward act, there is no place for human accusation. In like 
 manner the Latins by peccatum, w^ich is " sin," signify all manner of 
 deviation from the law ; but by crimen, which word they derive from cerno 
 which signifies " to perceive," they mean only such sins as may be made 
 appear before a judge ; and therefore are not mere intentions. 
 
 From this relation of sin to the law, and of crime to the civil law, may be 
 inferred, first, that where Ijw ceaseth, sin ceaseth. JBftt .because the law of 
 Nature is eternal, violation of covenants, ingratitude, arrogance, and all 
 facts contrary to any moral virtue, can never cease to be sii/. Secondly, 
 that the~Civil"fe* ceasmg,' crimes celEf : for there being no other law 
 remaining but that of nature, there is no place for accusation ; every man 
 being his own judge, and accused only by his own conscience, and cleared 
 by the uprightness of his own intention. When therefore his intention is 
 right, his fact is no sin ; if otherwise, his fact is sin ; but not crime. 
 Thirdly, that wh«B-the_§oyereiga.pa3iei ceaseth, _£rim&.,also ceaseth ;• for 
 where there is no such power, there is no protection to be had from the 
 law ; and therefore every one may protect himself by his own power : for 
 no man in the institution of sovereign power can be supposed to give away 
 the right of preserving his own body ; for the safety whereof all sovereignty 
 was ordained. But this is to be understood only of those that have not 
 themselves contributed to the taking away of the power that protected 
 them ; for that was a crime from the beginning. 
 
 The source of every CTime is some defect of the understanding, or some 
 error in rea^soning, arlsomfe rSrrtJjm.fgxES of the passions. Defect in the 
 understanding is "ignorance;" in reasoning, "erroneous opinion." Again, 
 ignorance is of three sorts ; of the "law," and of the "sovereign," and of 
 the "penalty." Ignorance of the law of Nature excuseth no man, because 
 every man that hath attained to the use of reason is supposed to know he 
 ought not to do to another what he would not have done to himself. 
 Therefore into what place soever a man shall come, if he do anything 
 contrary to that law, it is a crime. If a man come from the Indies hither, 
 and persuade men here to receive a new religion, or teach them anything 
 that tendeth to disobedience of the laws of this country, though he be never 
 so well persuaded of the truth of what he teacheth, he commits a crime, 
 and may be justly punished for the same, not only because his doctrine is 
 false, but also because he does that which he would not appi-ove in another, 
 namely, that coming from hence, he should endeavour to alter the 
 religion there. But ignorance of the civil law, shall excuse a man in a 
 strange country till it be declared to him, because till then no civil law is 
 binding. 
 
 In the like manner, if the civil law of a man's own country be not so 
 sufficiently declared as he may know it if he will, nor tlie action against the 
 law of Nature, the ignorance is a good excuse : in other cases ignorance of 
 the civil law excuseth not. 
 
 Ignorance of the sovereign power in the place of a men's ordinary resi- 
 dence excuseth him not, because he ought to take notice of the power by 
 which he hath been protected there. 
 
 Ignorance of the penalty, where the law is declared, excuseth no man ; 
 for in breaking the law, which, without a fear of penalty to follow, were 
 not a law, but vain words, he undergoeth the penalty, though he know not 
 what it is j because whosoever voluntarily doth any action, accepteth all 
 
136 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 the known consequences of it ; but punishment is a known consequence of 
 the violation of the laws in every commonwealth, whicli punishment, if it 
 be determined already by the law, he is subject to that ; if not, then he is 
 subject to arbitrary punishment. For it is reason that lie which does injury 
 without other limitation than that of his own will, should suffer punish- 
 ment without other limitation than that of his will whose law is thereby 
 violated. 
 
 But when a penally is either annexed to the crime in the law itself, or 
 hath been usually inflicted in the like cases ; there the delinquent is excused 
 from a greater penalty. For the punishment foreknown, if not great 
 enough to deter men from the action, is an invitement to it : because when 
 men compare the benefit of their injustice with the harm of their punish- 
 ment, by necessity of nature they choose that which appeareth best for 
 themselves ; and therefore when they are punished more than the law had 
 formerly determined, or more than others were punished for the same crime ; 
 it is the law that tempted and deceiveth them. 
 
 No law, made after a fact done, can make it a crime : because ij^jjjs.fact 
 be_agaiiisf'thelaS'"j5El^atiir'e,'2ie law w'as before the fact; and_a_pQaitiKa law 
 cannot be taken no tice qf , before i t be m ade^ and therefore cannot be obli- 
 gatufyr~ But when the law that forbiddeth a fact, is made before tlie fact 
 be done ; yet he that doth the fact, is liable to the penalty ordained after, 
 in case no lesser penalty were made known before, neither by writing, nor 
 by example, for the reason immediately before alleged. 
 
 From defect in reasoning, that is to say, from epror, ine jL are prone to 
 violate the laws^three^^ways. First, by oresumption^-cr false principles : as 
 when nien, 'frotSTTavrng observed how in all places and m all ages, unjust 
 actions have been authorized, by the force and victories of those who have 
 committed them ; and that potent men, breaking through the cobweb laws 
 of their country, the weaker sort and those that have failed in their enter- 
 prises, have been esteemed the only criminals ; have thereupon taken for 
 principles, and grounds of their reasoning, "that justice is but a vain word : 
 that whatsoever a man can get by his own industry and hazard, is his own : 
 that the practice of all nations cannot be unjust : that examples of former 
 times are good arguments of doing the like again ;" and many more of that 
 kind ; which being granted, no act in itself can be a crime, but must be 
 made so, not by the law, but by the success of them that commit it ; and 
 the same fact be virtuous or vicious, as fortune pleaseth ; so that what Marius 
 makes a crime, Sylla shall make meritorious, and Caesar, the same laws 
 standing, turn again into a crime, to the perpetual disturbance of the peace 
 of the commonwealth. 
 
 Secondly, by false tf'"'^''"i that either misinterpret the law of Nature, 
 makmg it thereby repugnant to the law civil ; or by teaching for laws, sucb 
 doctrines of their own, or traditions of former times, as are inconsistent with 
 the duty of a subject. 
 
 Thirdly, by erroneo-js inferences from true principles ; which happens 
 comniUilly lu uien-that-are-hastyancTprecipitate in concluding, and resolv- 
 ing what to do ; such as are they, that have both a great opinion of their 
 own understanding, and believe that things of this nature require not lime 
 and study, but only common experience, and a good natural wit ; whereof 
 no man thinks himself unprovided : whereas the knowledge of right and 
 wrong, which is no less difficult, there is no man will pretend to, without 
 great and long study. And of those defects in reasoning, there is none 
 that can excuse, though some of them may extenuate, a crime in any man, 
 that pretendeth to the administration of his own private business ; much 
 less in them that undertake a public charge ; because they pretend to the 
 reason, upon the want whereof they would ground their excuse. 
 
OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, ETC. 137 
 
 Of thg ga^nng that-mtMLfrpqiipnUy are thccauseS-ftLcriiiie, Que js vaiji- 
 i>lorY, or a foolish over-rating of their own worth ; as if difference of worth 
 were an effect of their wit, or riches, or blood, or some other natural quality, 
 not depending on the will of those that have the sovereign authority. 
 From whence proceedeth a presumption that the punishments ordained by 
 the laws, and extended generally to all subjects, ought not to be inflicted on 
 them with the same rigour they are inflicted on poor, obscure, and simple 
 men, comprehended under the name of the " vulgar." 
 
 Therefore it happeneth commonly, that such as value themselves by the 
 greatness of their wealth, adventure on crimes, upon hope of escaping pun- 
 ishment, by corrupting public justice, or obtaining pardon by money, or 
 other rewards. 
 
 And that such as have multitude of potent kindred, and popular men, 
 that have gained reputation amongst the multitude, lake courage to violate 
 the laws, from a hope of oppressing the power to whom it belongeth to put 
 them in execution. 
 
 And that such as have a great and false opinion of their own wisdom, 
 take upon them to reprehend the actions and call in question the authority 
 of them that govern, and so to unsettle the laws with their public discourse, 
 as that nothing shall be a crime, but what their own designs require should 
 be so. It happeneth also to the same men, to be prone to all such crimes, 
 as consist in craft, and in deceiving of their neighbours ; because they 
 think their designs are too subtle to be perceived. These I say are effects 
 of a false presumption of their own wisdom/^ For of them that are the first 
 movers in the disturbance of commonwealth, which can never happen 
 without a civil war, very few are left alive long enough to see their new 
 designs established so that the benefit of their crimes redoundeth to 
 posterity, and suclfris would least have wished it : which argues they were 
 not so wise as they thought they were. And those that deceive upon hope 
 of not being observed, do commonly deceive themselves, the darkness in 
 which they believe they lie hidden being nothing else but their own blind- 
 ness ; and are no wiser than children, that think all hid by hiding their 
 own eyes. 
 
 And generally all vain-glorious men, unless they be withal timorous, are 
 subject to anger ; as being more prone than others to interpret for contempt 
 the ordinary liberty of conversation : and there are few crimes that may not 
 be produced by anger. 
 
 As for the passions of hate, lust, ambition, and covetousness, what 
 crimes they are apt to produce, is so obvious to every man's experience and 
 understanding, as there needeth nothing to be said of them, saving that they 
 are Infirmities, so annexed to the nature, both of man and all other living 
 creatures, as that their effects cannot be hindered but by extraordinary use 
 of reason, or a constant severity in punishing them. For in those things 
 men hate, they find a continual and unavoidable molestation ; whereby 
 either a man's patience must be everlasting, or he must be eased by remov- 
 ing the power of that which molesteth him. The former is difficult ; the 
 latter is many times impossible, without some violation of the law. Am- 
 bition and covetousness are passions also that are perpetually incumbent and 
 pressing ; whereas reason is not perpetually present to resist them : and 
 therefore whensoever the hope of impunity appears, their effects proceed. 
 And for lust, what it wants iii the lasting, it hath in the vehemence, which 
 sufficeth to weigh down the apprehension of all easy or uncertain pun- 
 ishments. 
 
 cif oil p^ic<iinnsi thnt 'vhish inrlif't'? r.^^., i...^pt t^^ i-,tooi- ihp lawg, ig ri;,-^f. 
 
 Nay, excepting some generous natures, it is the only thing, wlien there is 
 apparence of profit or pleasure by breaking the laws, that makes men 
 
138 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 keep them. And yet in many cases a crime may be committed through 
 fear. 
 
 Foi- not every fear justifies the action it produceth, but the fear only of 
 corporeal hurt, which we call " bodily fear," and from which a man cannot 
 see how to be delivered but by the action. A man is assaulted, fears present 
 death, from which he sees not how to escape but by wounding him thatas- 
 saulteih him : if he wound him to death, tliis is no crime, because no man 
 is supposed at the making of a commouwealtli to have abandoned the 
 defence of his life or limbs, where the law cannot arrive time enough to 
 his assistance. BatJa]tilljianan,bjcauseJrqinJtiU actions, or histJlieatcn- — 
 'liSiii J """Y "''{{"ft ^'^.wm kill me, when '^''''''nr'ii '""'Bft.T ''^yrjMH'?! ^['(^ 
 means .to 4eman4 .protectjon from thp..SQy.e r£iffli. povyer. is a crimp< Again, 
 a man receives words of disgrace or some little injuries, for viliich they that 
 made the laws had assigned no punishment, nor thought it worthy of a man 
 that hath the use of reason to take notice of, and is afraid, unless he 
 revenge it, he shall fall into contempt, and consequently be obnoxious to 
 the like injuries from others ; and to avoid this, breaks the law, and protects 
 himself for the future by the terror of his private revenge. This is a crime ; 
 for the hurt is not corporeal, but fantastical, and, tliough in this corner of 
 the world, made sensible by a custom not many years since begun, amongst 
 young and vain men, so light, as a gallant man, and one that is assured of 
 his own courage, cannot take notice of. Also a man may stand in fear of 
 spirits, either through his own superstition, or through too much credit given 
 to other men, that tell him of strange dreams and visions, and thereby be 
 made believe they will hurt him for doing or omitting divers things, which 
 nevertheless to do, or omit, is contrary to the laws ; and that which is so 
 done, or omitted, is not to be excused by this fear : but is a crime. For, as 
 I have shown before in the second chalpter, dreams be naturally but the 
 fancies remaining in sleep, after the impressions our senses had formerly re- 
 ceived waking ; and when men are by any accident unassured they have 
 slept, seem to be real visions ; and therefore he that presumes to break the 
 law upon his own or another's dream, or pretended vision, or upon other 
 fancy of the power of invisible spirits, than is permitted by the common- 
 wealth, leaveththe law of Nature, which is a certain offence, and foUoweth 
 the imagery of his own or another private man's brain, which he can never 
 know whether it signifieth anything or nothing, nor whether he that tells his 
 dream say true or lie ; which if every private man should have leave to do, 
 as they must by the law of Nature, if any one have it, there could no law 
 be made to hold, and so all commonwealth would be dissolved. 
 
 Prom these different sources of crimes, it appears already, that all crimes 
 are not, as the Stoics of old time maintained, of the same allay. There is 
 place, not only for "excuse," by which that which seemed a crijne is 
 proved to be none at all ; but also for " extenuation," by which the crime, 
 that seemed great, is made less. For though ;iH rrimps i\a pqiinlly dnnrryr 
 the name of injustice, as-all-deviation.froinj.sti;aighJ;-liu©is^-aaily-crtroked- 
 ^a5S, which the Stoics rightly observed : y^ ir4ggs not follow that all 
 crimes are equaUx uryusj,; °o more than that allcroolced lines "are equalTy 
 crooked : which the Stoics not observing, held it as great a crime to kill a 
 hen, against the law, as to kill one's father. 
 
 That which totally excuseth a fact, and takes away from it the nature of 
 a crime, can be none but that which at the same time taketh away the 
 obligation of the law. For the fact committed once against the law, if he 
 that committed it be obliged to the law, can be no other than a crime. 
 
 The want of means to know the law totally excuseth. For the law 
 whereof a man has no means to inform himself, is not obligatory. But the 
 want of diligence to inquire shall not be considered as a want of means ; 
 
OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, ETC. 139 
 
 nor shall any man, that pretendeth to reason enough for the government of 
 his own affairs, be supposed to want means to know the laws of Nature ; 
 because they are known by the reason he pretends to: only children and 
 madmen are excused from offences against the law natural. 
 
 Where a man is captive, or in the power of the enemy (and he is then 
 in the power of the enemy when his person or his means of living is so), if 
 it be without his own fault, the obligation of the law ceaseth ; because he 
 must obey the enemy or die ; and consequently such obedience is no crime : 
 for no man is obliged, when the protection of the law faileth, not to protect 
 himself by the best means he can. 
 
 If a man, bvthe terror of present d ffllTi, |}fi rnpipffllpdlr^ f]n g farf agai"'*^ 
 t he ia^v. he is totally. excu sed^ because nn law, can oMipff a maiLtoabaadon 
 hjs^o wn pres ervation^ And supposing such a law were obligatory, yet a 
 raanwould'TeaSon thus : " If I do it not, I die presently ; if I do it, I die 
 afterwards; therefore by doing it, there is time of life gained." Nature 
 therefore ijompels him to the fact. 
 
 When a man is destitute of food, or other thing necessary for his life, 
 and cannot preserve himself any other way but by some fact against the 
 law ; as if in a great famine he take the food by force or stealth, which he 
 cannot obtain for money nor charity ; or in defence of his life snatch away 
 another man's sword ; he is totally excused, for the reason next before 
 alleged. 
 
 Again, facts done against the law by the authority of another, are by 
 that authority excused against the author ; because no man ought to accuse 
 his own fact in another that is but his instrument : but it is not excused 
 against a third person thereby injured ; because in the violation of the law, 
 both the author and actor are criminals. From hence it followeth that 
 when that man or assembly, that hath the sovereign power, commandeth a 
 man to do that which is contrary to a former law, the doing of it is totally 
 excused : for he ought not to condemn it himself, because he is the author ; 
 and what cannot justly be condemned by the sovereign, cannot justly be 
 punished by any other. Besides, when the sovereign commandeth any- 
 thing to be done against his own former law, the command, as to that 
 particular fact, is an abrogation of the law. 
 
 If that man, or assembly that hath the sovereign power, disclaim any 
 right essential to.the sovei-eignty, whereby, there accrueth to the subject any 
 liberty inconsistent with the sovereign power, that is to say, with the very 
 being of a commonwealth, if the subject shall refuse to obey the command 
 in anything contrary to the liberty granted, this is nevertheless a sin, and 
 contrary to the duty of the subject : for he ought to take notice of what is 
 inconsistent with the sovereignty, because it was erected by his own consent 
 and for his own defence ; and that such liberty as is inconsistent with it was 
 granted through ignorance of the evil- consequence thereof. But if he not 
 only disobey, but also resist a public minister in the execution of it, then it 
 is a crime, because he might have been righted, without any breach of the 
 peace, upon complaint. 
 
 Ti^ degrees of crime are taken on divers scales, and^n^sjued, first, by 
 th^ y^'icn'^y- of the source or cause ; secondly, by the WufPB'"" of 'he 
 example ; thirdly, by the mischief of the effc ct ; and fourthly, by th e con? 
 currence of ti mes , plnrc!: , arid- peiwons." 
 
 xtie same iact done against the law, if it proceed from presumption of 
 strength, riches, or friends to resist those that are to execute the law, is;a 
 gieater crime than if it proceed from hope of not being discovered, or of 
 escape by flight : for presumption of impunity by force is a root from 
 whence springeth, at all times, and upon all temptations, a contempt of all 
 laws ; whereas, in the latter case, the apprehensioii of danger that ma](es 9, 
 
I40 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 man fly, renders him more obedient for the future. A crime which we 
 know to be so, is greater than the same crime proceeding from a false 
 persuasion that it is lawful; for he that committeth it against his own 
 tonscience, presumeth on his force or other power, -which encourages him to 
 commit the same again : but he that doth it by error, after the error is shown 
 him, is conformable to the law. 
 
 He whose error proceeds from the authority of a teacher, or an inter- 
 preter of the law publicly authorized, is not so faulty as he whose error 
 proceedeth from a peremptory pursuit of his own principles and reasoning ; 
 for what is taught by one that teacheth by public authority, the common- 
 wealth teachetli, and hath a resemblance of law till the same authority 
 c'jntrolleth it ; and in all crimes that contain not in them a denial of the 
 sovereign power, nor are against an evident law, excuseth totally : whereas 
 he that groundelh his actions on his private judgment, ought, according to 
 the rectitude or error thereof, to stand or fall. 
 
 The same fact, if it have been constantly punished in otheu men, is a 
 greater crime than if there have been many precedent examples of impunity. 
 For those examples are so many hopes of impunity, given by the sovereign 
 himself ; and because he which furnishes a man with such a hope and pre- 
 sumption of mercy, as encouragelh him to offend, hath his part in the 
 olTence, he cannot reasonably charge the offender with the whole. 
 
 A crime arising from a sudden passion is not so great as when the same 
 ariseth from long meditation ; for in the former case there is a place for 
 extenuation, in the common infirmity of human nature ; but he that doth 
 it with premeditation, has used circumspection, and cast his eye on the law, 
 on the punishment, and on the consequence thereof to human society ; all 
 which, in committing the crime, he hath contemned and postposed to his 
 own appetite. But tliere is no suddenness of passion sufficient for a total 
 excuse : for all the time between the first knovring of the law and the 
 commission of the fact, shall be taken for a time of deliberation : because 
 he ought by meditation of the law to rectify the irregularity of his 
 passions. 
 
 Where the law is publicly, and with assiduity, before all the people read 
 and interpreted, a fact done against it is a greater crime than where men 
 are left without such instruction, to inquire of it with difficulty, uncer- 
 tainty, and interruption of their callings, and be informed by private men ; 
 for in this case part of the fault is discharged upon common infirmity ; but, 
 in the former, there is apparent negligence, which is not without some 
 contempt of the sovereign power. 
 
 Those facts which the law expressly condemneth, but the lawmaker by 
 other manifest signs of his will tacitly approveth, are less crimes than the 
 same facts condemned both by the law and lawmaker. For jeejog—the 
 wiU^of the lawmaker is a )aw,jhere apiBeai-Ui Ahis^case two contradictory 
 laws ; "wKTcir would totally excuse, if men were bound to talie nbtrce of the 
 sove»ejgnVapprobationby_otljetarguments than aie expressedJ^y-his com- 
 mahd. vBut because there are punishments consequent, not only to the 
 "fransgression of his law, but also to the observing of it, he is in part a cause 
 of the transgression, and therefore cannot reasonably impute the whole 
 crime to the delinquent. For example, the law condemneth duels ; the 
 punishment is made capital. On the contrary part, he that refuseth duel is " 
 subject to contempt and scorn, without remedy ; and sometimes by the 
 sovereign himself thought unworthy to have any charge or preferment in 
 war. If thereupon he accept due!, considering all men lawfully endeavour 
 to obtain the good opinion of them that have the sovereign power, he ought 
 not in reason to be rigorously punished, seeing part of the fault may be 
 discharged on the punisher ; which 1 say, not as wishing liberty of private 
 
OF CRIMES, EXCUSES, ETC. 141 
 
 revenges ov any other kind of disobedience, but a care in governors not to 
 countenance anything obliquely which directly tljey forbid. The examples 
 of princes, to those that see them, are, and ever have been, more potent to 
 jjovern their actions than the laws themselves. And though it be our duty 
 to do, not what they do, but what they say, yet will that duty never be per- 
 formed till it please God to give men an extraordinary and supernatural 
 grace to follow that precept. 
 
 Again, if we compare crimes by the mischief of their effects ; first, the 
 same fact, when-it redounds to the damage of many, is greater than when it 
 redounds to the hurt of few ; and therefore, when a fact hurteth, not only 
 in the present, but also, by example, in the future, it is a greater crime 
 than if it hurt only in tlie present : for the former is a fertile crime, and 
 multiplies to the hurt of many ; the latter is barren. To maintain doctrines 
 contrary to the religion established in the commonwealth, is a greater fault 
 in an authorized preacher than in a private person ; so also is it to live 
 profanely, incontinerftly, or do any irreligious act whatsoever. Likewise in 
 a professor of the law, to maintain any point, or do any act that tendeth to 
 the weakening of the sovereign power, is a greater crime than in another 
 man. Also in a man that hath such reputation for wisdom as that his 
 counsels are followed or his actions imitated by many, his fact against the 
 law is a greater crime than the same fact in another : for such men not only 
 commit crime, but teach it for law to all other men. And generally all 
 crimes are the greater by the scandal they give : that is to say, by becoming 
 stumbling-blocks to the weak, that look not so much upon the way they go 
 in, as upon the light that other men carry before them. 
 
 Also facts of hostility against the pi-esent state of the commonwealth, are 
 greater crimes than the same acts done to private men : for the damage 
 extends itself to all : such are the betraying of the strengths or revealing of 
 the secrets of the commonwealth to an enemy ; also all attempts upon the 
 representative of the commonwealth, be it a monarch or an assembly ; and 
 all endeavours by word, or deed, to diminish the authority of the same, 
 tither in the present time or in succession : which crimes the Latins under- 
 stand by crimina l(csa tnajeslatis, and consist in design, or act, contrary to 
 a fundamental law. 
 
 Likewise those crimes, which render judgments of no effect, are greater 
 crimes than injuries done to one or a few persons ; as to receive money to 
 give false judgment or testimony, is a greater crime than otherwise to 
 deceive a man of the like, or a greater sum ; because not only he has 
 wrong that falls by such judgments ; but all judgments are rendered use- 
 less, and occasion ministered to force and private revenges. 
 
 Also robbery, and depeculation of the public treasure or revenues, is a 
 greater crime than the robbing or defrauding of a private man ; because to 
 rob the public, is to rob many at once. 
 
 Also the counterfeit usurpation of public ministry, the counterfeiting of 
 public seals or pubhc coin, than counterfeiting of a private man's person 
 or his seal ; because the fraud thereof extendeth to the damage of many. 
 
 Of facts against the law, done to private men, the greater crime is that 
 where the damage, in the common opinion of men, is most sensible, and 
 therefore 
 
 To kill against the law, is a greater crime, than any other injury, life 
 preserved. 
 
 And to kill with torment, greater than simply to kill. 
 
 And mutilation of a limb, greater than the spoiling a man of his goods. 
 
 And the spoiling a man of his goods by terror of death or wounds, than 
 by clandestine surreption. 
 
 And by clandestine surreption, than by consent fraiidulently obtained, 
 
143 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 And the violation of chastity by force, greater than by flatteiyi 
 
 And of a woman married, than of a woman not married. 
 
 For all these things are commonly so valued ; though some men are 
 more, and some less, sensible of the same offence. But the law regardeth 
 not the particular, but the general inclination of mankind. 
 
 And therefore the offence men take, from contumely, in words or 
 gesture, when they produce no other harm than the present grief of him 
 that is reproached, hath been neglected in the laws of the Greeks, Romans, 
 and other both ancient and modern commonwealths ; supposing the true 
 cause of such grief to consist, not in the contumely, which takes no hold 
 upon men conscious of their own virtue, but in tlie pusillanimity of him 
 that is offended by it. l^i""*^ 
 
 Also a crime against a private man is much aggravated by the person, 
 time, and place. For to kill one's parent, is a greater crime than to kill 
 another : for the parent ought to have the honour of a sovereign, though 
 he surrendered his power to the civil law ; because he had it originally by 
 nature. And to rob a poor man, is a greater crime than to rob a rich man ; 
 because it is to the poor a more sensible damage. 
 
 And a crime committed in the time or place appointed for devotion is 
 greater than if committed at another time or place : for it proceeds from a 
 greater contempt of the law. 
 
 Many other cases of aggiavation and extenuation might be added : but 
 by these I have set down, it is obvious to every man to take the altitude of 
 any other crime proposed. 
 
 Lastly, because in almost all crimes there is an injury done not only to 
 some private men, but also to the commonwealth, the same crime, when the 
 accusation is in the name ofthe commonwealth, is called public crime : and 
 when in the name of a private man, a private crime ; and the pleas accord- 
 ing thereunto called public, jttdicia publica, Pleas of the Crown, or Private 
 Pleas. As in an accusation of murder, if the accuser be a private man, the 
 plea is a Private Plea ; if the accuser be the sovereign, the plea is a Public 
 Plea. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Of Punishments and Rewards, 
 
 A PUNISHMENT "is an evil inflicted by public authority on him that hath 
 done or omitted that which is judged by the same authority to be a trans- 
 gression of the law ; to the end that the will of men may thereby the better 
 be disposed to obedience." 
 
 Before I infer anything from this definition, there is a question to be 
 answered of much importance ; which is, by what door the right or authority 
 of punishing in any case came in. For by that which has been said before, 
 no man is supposed bound by covenant, not to resist violence ; and conse- 
 quently it cannot be intended that he gave any right to another to lay violent 
 hands upon his person. In the making of a commonwealth, every man 
 giveth away the right of defending another, but not of defending himself. 
 Also he obligeth himself to assist him that hath the sovereignty in the 
 punishing of another ; but of himself not. But to covenant to assist the 
 sovereign in doing hurt to another, unless he that so covenanteth have a right 
 to do it himself, is not to give him a right to punish. It is manifest therefore 
 that tliejjght which the commonwealth, that is, he or they that represent it, 
 JjaUx-to-punishns-not-groundwi-Dn any- concession or git;t-<jf-th£_suij«ct9i 
 
PVm^tiMENTS AND REWARDS. 143 
 
 But I have also showed formerly, that before the Institution of commonwealth 
 every man had a right to everything, and to do whatsoever he thought 
 necessary to his own preservation ; subduing, hurling, or killing any man 
 in order thereunto. And this is the foundation of that right of punishing 
 which is exercised in every commonwealth. For the subjects did not give 
 the sovereign that right ; but oiilji_in .lajjn£ down tlieirs,_strengthened 
 hi m to use m ? J^jJJi'-^^ glimiM think fit, for the preservation of them aH : 
 so that it was np|: p;iven, but left to him, and to him only ; and (excepting 
 'thf Ijpiits cpf JhiirrVx .ri'?^^™^ iMKl.as. entire as uijheMnditimi oj^ 
 nature,.and.of waiuat- every one againsthis neighboy.^' ' 
 
 From the definition of punishment, I infer, first, that neither private 
 revenges, nor injuries of private men, can properly be styled punishment ; 
 because they proceed not from public authority. 
 
 Secondly, that to be neglected, and unpreferred by the public favour, is 
 not a punishment ; because no new evil is thereby on any man inflicted ; he 
 is only left in the estate he was in before. 
 
 Thirdly, that the evil inflicted by public authority, without precedent 
 public condemnation, is not to be styled by the name of punishment, but of 
 an hostile act ; because the fact for which a man is punished,, ought first to 
 be judged by public authority, to be a transgression of the law. 
 
 Fourthly, that the evil inflicted by usurped power, and judges without 
 authority from the sovereign, is not punishment, but an act of hostility ; be- 
 cause the acts of power usurped have not for author the person condemned, 
 and therefore are not acts of public authority. 
 
 Fifthly, that all evil which is inflicted without intention, or possibility of 
 disposing the delinquent, or, by his example, other men, to obey the laws, 
 is not punishment, but an act of hostility ; because without such an end, no 
 hurt done is contained under that name. 
 
 Sixthly, whereas to certain actions there be annexed by nature, divers 
 hurtful consequences ; as when a man in assaulting another is himself slain 
 or wounded ; or when he falleth into sickness by the doing of some unlawful 
 act ; such hurt, though in respect of God, who is the author of nature, 
 it may be said to be inflicted, and therefore a punishment divine ; yet it is 
 not contained in the name of punishment in respect of men, because it is 
 not inflicted by the authority of man. 
 
 Seventhly, if the harm inflicted be less than the benefit or contentment 
 that naturally foUoweth the crime committed, that harm is not within the 
 definition ; and is rather the price, or redemption, than the punishment of a 
 crime : because it is of the nature of punishment to have for end the dis- 
 posing of men to obey the law ; which end, if it be less than the benefit of 
 the transgression, it attaineth not, but worketh a contrary eflfect. 
 
 Eighthly, if a punishment be determined and prescribed in the law itself, 
 and after the crime committed, there be a greater punishment inflicted, the 
 excess is not punishment, but an act of hostility. For seeing the aim of 
 punishment is not arevenge, but terror ; and the terror of a great punish- 
 ment unknown, is taken away by the declaration of a less, the unexpected 
 addition is no part of the punishment. But where there is no punishment 
 at all determined by the law, there whatsoever is inflicted hath the nature 
 of punishment. For he that goes about the violation of a law, wherein no 
 penalty is determined, expecteth an indeterminate, that is to say, an 
 arbitrary punishment. 
 
 Ninthly, harm inflicted for a fact done before there was a law that forbade 
 it, is not puiushment, but an act of hostility : for before the law, there is no 
 transgression of the law : but punishment supposeth a fact judged, to have 
 been transgression of the law ; therefore harm inflicted before the law made^ 
 is not punishment, but an act of hostility. 
 
144 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Tenthly, hurt inflicted on the representative of the commonwealth, is not 
 punishment, but an act of hostility ; because it is of the nature of punish- 
 ment to be inflicted by public authority, which is the authority only of the 
 representative itself. 
 
 Lastly, harm inflicted upon one that is a declared enemy, falls not under 
 the name of punishment : because seeing they were either never subject to 
 the law, and therefore cannot transgress it ; or having been subject to it, 
 and professing to be no longer so, by consequence deny they can transgress 
 ,it, all the harms that can be done them, must be taken as acts of hostility. 
 But in declared hostility, all infliction of evil is lawful. From whence it 
 foUoweth, that if a subject shall by fact, or word, wittingly and deliberately 
 deny the authority of the representative of the commonwealth (whatsoever 
 penalty hath been formerly ordained for treason), he may lawfully be made 
 to suffer whatsoever the representative will. F.or in denying saib|fi'*>®''T *e 
 ^SSit-^'^'^-EiiSisJinisiiLaaix.tbsJajaUiath been ordained/; and therefore 
 suBers'as an enemy of the commonwealth; that is, according to the will of 
 the representative. For the punishments set down itf the law, are to subjects, 
 not to enemies ; such as are they, that having been by their own acts 
 subjects, deliberately revolting, deny the sovereign power. 
 
 The first and most gfeneral distribution of punishments, is into "divine " 
 and "human." Of the former I shall have occasion to speak in a more 
 convenient place hereafter. 
 
 " Human," are those punishments that be inflicted by the commandment 
 of man; and are either "corporal," or "pecuniary," or "ignominy," or 
 " imprisonment," or " exile," or mixed of these. 
 
 " Corporal punishment " is that which is inflicted on the body directly, 
 and according to the intention of him that inflictetli it : such as are stripes, 
 or wounds, or deprivation of such pleasures of the body as were before 
 lawfully enjoyed. 
 
 And of these, some be " capital," some " less" than " capital." Capital, 
 is the infliction of death ; and that either simply or with torment. Less 
 than capital, are stripes,'wounds, chains, and any other corporal pain, not in 
 its own nature mortal. For if upon the infliction of a punishment death 
 follow not in the intention of the inflictor, the punishment is not to be 
 esteemed capital, though the hann prove mortal by an accident not to be 
 foreseen ; in wliich case death is not inflicted, but hastened. 
 
 " Pecuniary punishment," is that which consisteth not only in the i 
 deprivation of a sum of money, but also of lands, or any other goods which 
 are usually bought and sold for money. And in case the law, that 
 ordaineth such a punishment, be made with design to gather money from 
 such as shall transgress the same, it is not properly a punishment, but the 
 ])iice of privilege and exemption from the law, which doth not absolutely 
 forbid the fact, but only to those that are not able to pay the money : 
 except where the law is natural, or part of religion; for in that case it is 
 not an exemption from the law, but a transgression of it. As where a law 
 exacteth a pecuniary mulct, of them that take the name of God in vain, the 
 payment of the mulct is not the price of a dispensation to swear, but the 
 ]mnishment of the transgression of a law indispensable. In like manner if 
 the law impose a slim of money to be paid to him that has been injured ; 
 this is but a satisfaction for the hurt done him : and exlinguisheth the 
 accusation of the party injured, not the crime of the offender. 
 
 " Ignominy," is the infliction of such evil as is made dishonourable ; or 
 the deprivation of such good as is made honourable by the commonwealth. 
 For there be some things honourable by nature ; as the effects of courage, 
 magnanimity, strength, wisdom, and other abilities of body and mind : 
 others made honourable by the commonwealth ; as badges, titles, offices, or 
 
PUNISHMENTS AND REWARDS. 145 
 
 any other singular mark of the sovereign's favour. The former, though 
 they may fail by nature or accident, cannot be taken away by a law ; and 
 therefore the loss of them is not punishment. But the latter may be taken 
 away by the public authority that made them hojiourable, and are properly 
 punishments : such are degrading men condemned of their badges, title', 
 and offices ; or declaring them incapable of the like in time to come. 
 
 " Imprisonment," is when a. man is by public authority deprived of 
 liberty, and may happen from two divers ends, whereof one is the safe 
 custody of a man accused, the other is the inflicting of pain on a man 
 condemned. The former is not punishment, because no man is supposed 
 to be punished before he be judicially heard and declared guilty. And 
 therefore whatsoever hurt a man is made to sufTer by bonds, or restraint, 
 before his cause be heard, over and above that which is necessary to assure 
 his custody, is against the law of Nature. But the latter is punishment, 
 because evil, and inflicted by public authority, for somewhat that has by the 
 same authority been judged a transgression of the law. Under this word 
 imprisonment, I comprehend all restraint of motion, caused by an external 
 obstacle, be It a house, which is called by the general name of a prison, or 
 an island, as when men ar? said to be confined to it, or a place where men 
 are set to work, as in old time men have been condemned to quarries, 
 and in these times to galleys ; or be it a chain or any other such impedi- 
 ment. 
 
 " Exile " (banishment) is when a man is for a crime condemned to de- 
 part out of the dominion of the commonwealth, or out of a certain part 
 thereof, and during a prefixed lime, or for ever, not to return into it ; and 
 seemeth not in its own nature, without other circumstances, to be a punish- 
 ment ; but rather an escape, or a public commandment to avoid punishment 
 by flight. And Cicero says, there was never any such punishment ordained 
 in the city of Rome ; but calls it a refuge of men in danger. For if a man 
 banished, be nevertheless permitted to enjoy his goods, and the revenue of 
 his Lands, the mere change of air is no punishment, nor does it tend to that 
 benefit of the commonwealth, for which all punishments are ordained, that 
 is to say, to the forming of men's wills to the observation of the law ; but 
 many times to the damage of the commonwealth. Fora hanished,man is 
 a.lavYfut,,^nemy of, the commonwealth that .baini5hedthini,.as .hfiJDg.no more 
 a member of th e sama. But if he be withal deprived of his lands or 
 goods, then the punishment lieth not in the exile, but is to be reckoned 
 amongst punishments pecuniary. 
 
 AU punis hments o f innoce nt .s u1J£cts.J)e they great^or_Uttle, ^e-Agaiost 
 th e law'oF f jarutej-j^ punTshnjmt is only for trans^resaon of theiav% and 
 ther efore there can be no ^p uni^E iment^ the ^nocent'I' '^ therefore a 
 viblation,' hfSt, of that law of Nature which forbi33eth all men in their re- 
 venges to look at anything but some futurs_gOOd, for there can arrive no 
 good to the commonwealth by punishing the innocent. Secondly, of that 
 which forbiddeth ingtaiitude : for seeing all sovereign power is originally 
 given by the consent of every one of the subjects, to the end they should 
 as long as they are obedient be protected thereby : the punishment of the 
 innocent is a rendering of evil for good. And thirdly, of the law that com- 
 mandeth pi-]"i'y, that is to say, an equal distribution of justice, which in 
 punishing the innocent is not observed. 
 
 But the infliction of what evil soever, on an innocent man that is not a 
 subject, if it be for the benefit of the commonwealth, and without violation 
 of any former covenant, is no breach of the law of Nature. For all men 
 that are not subjects, are either enemies, or else they have ceased from being 
 so by some precedent covenants. But against enemies, whom the com- 
 monwealth judgeth capable to do them hurt, it is lawful by the original 
 
U^ OP COMMONU^EALtli. 
 
 right of Nature to make war ; wherein the sword iudgeth not, nor doth tM 
 victor make distinction of nocent and innocent, as to the time past, nor 
 has other respect of mercy than as it conduceth to the good of his own 
 people. And upon this ground it is that also in subjects who deliberately 
 deny the authority of the commonwealth established, the vengeance is law- 
 fully extended, not only to the fathers, but also to the third and fourth 
 generation not yet in "being, and consequently innocent of the fact for which 
 they are afflicted : because the nature of this offence consisteth in the 
 renouncing of subjection, which is a relapse into the condition of war, 
 commonly called rebellion, and they that so offend, suffer not as subjects, 
 but as enemies. For "rebellion" is but war renewed. 
 
 "Reward" is either of "gift "or by "contract." When by contract, 
 it is called " salary " and " wages ; " which is benefit due for service 
 performed or promised. When of gift, it is benefit proceeding from the 
 " grace " of them that bestow it, to encourage or enable men to do 
 them service. And therefore when the sovereign of a commonwealth 
 appointeth a salary to any public office, he that receiveth it is bound in 
 justice to perform his office ; otherwise, he is bound only in honour to 
 acknowledgment, and an endeavour of requital. For though men have 
 no lawful remedy, when they be commanded to quit their private business, 
 to serve the public, without reward or salary ; yet they are not bound 
 thereto, by the law of Nature, nor by the institution of the commonwealth, 
 unless the servic'e cannot otherwise be done ; because it is supposed the 
 sovereign may niake use of all their means, insomuch as the most common 
 soldier may demand the wages of his warfare as a debt. 
 
 The benefit which a sovereign bestoweth on a subject, for fear of some 
 power and ability he hath to do hurt to the commonwealth, are not pro- 
 perly rewards ; for they are not salaries ; beeause there is in this case no 
 contract supposed, every man being obliged already not to do the common- 
 wealth disservice : nor are they graces, because they be extorted by fear, 
 which ought not to be incident to the sovereign power : but are rather 
 sacrifices, which the sovereign, considered in his natural person, and not 
 in the person of the commonwealth, makes, for the appeasing the discon- 
 tent of him he thinks more potent than himself ; and encourage not to 
 obedience, but on the contrary, to the continuance and increasing of further 
 extortion. 
 
 And whereas some salaries are certain, and proceed from the public 
 treasure ; and others UBcertain £md»Gasiial, proceeding from the execution 
 of the office for which the salary is ordained ; the latter is in some cases 
 lim-ffi;i\,tff tiip rnmmnnwpaltli ; as In the case of judicature. For where the 
 benefit of the judges antf ministers of a court of justice ariseth from the 
 multitude of causes that are brought to their cognizance, there must needs 
 follow two inconveniences : one, is the nourishing of suits ; for the more 
 suits, the greater benefit : and another that depends on that, which is con- 
 tention about jurisdiction, each court drawing to itself as many causes as it 
 can. But in offices of execution there are not those inconveniences ; 
 because their employment cannot be increased by any endeavour of their 
 own. And thus much shall suffice for the nature of punishment and re- 
 ward ; which are, as it were, the nerves and tendons that move the limbs 
 and joints of a commonwealth. 
 
 ' Hitherto I have set forth the nature of man, whose pride and other 
 passions have compelled him to submit himself to government : tt^ether 
 with the great power of his governor, whom I compared to " Leviathan," 
 taking that comparison out of the two last verses of the one-and-fortieth of 
 Job ; where God, having set forth the great power of " Leviathan," 
 calleth him king of the proud. " There is nothing," saith he, "on earth 
 
DISSOLUTION OF COMMONWEALTHS. 147 
 
 to be compared with him. He is made so as not to be afraid. Hg- seeth 
 every high thing below him ; and is king of all the children of pride." 
 But because he is mortal, and subject to decay, as all other earthly creatures 
 are ; and because there is that in heaven, though not on earth, that he 
 should stand in fear of, and whose laws he ought to obey ; I shall in the 
 next following chapter speak of his diseases, and the causes of his mor- 
 tality ; and of what laws of Nature he is bound to obey. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Of those Things that Weaken, or tend to the Dissolution of a 
 Commonwealth. 
 
 Though nothing can be immortal which mortals make, yet if men had the 
 use of reason they pretend to, their commonwealths might be secured, at 
 least from perishing by internal diseases. For by the nature of their insti- 
 tution, they are designed to live as long as mankind, or as the laws of Nature 
 or as justice itself, which gives them life. Therefore when they come to be 
 dissolved, not by external violence, but intestine disorder, the fault is not in 
 men, as they are the "matter;" but as they are the ■" makers," and 
 orderers of them. For men, as they become at last weary of irregular 
 jostling and hewing one another, and desire with all their hearts to conform 
 themselves into one firm and lasting edifice : so for want, both of the art of 
 making fit laws, to square their actions by, and also of humility and patience, 
 to suffer the rude and cumbersome points of their present greatness to be 
 taken off, they cannot without the help of a very able architect, be compiled 
 into any other than a crazy building, such as hardly lasting out their own 
 time, must assuredly fall upon the heads of their posterity. 
 
 Amongst the " infirmities " therefore of a commonwealth, I will reckon 
 in the first place, those that arise from an imperfect institution, and resemble 
 the diseases of a natural body, which proceed from a defectuous pro- 
 creation. ' . 
 
 Of which this is one, "that a man to obtain a kingdom, is sometimes <ll 
 content with less power, than to the peace and defence of the common- ll 
 wealth is necessarily required." From whence it cometh to pass, that when H 
 the exercise of the power laid by i s for the public safety to be j^e ^umed, it 
 hatH^ejresemblance o f an unjusr dc^ il33uclltl3pS^"Ig;gjieaE!j^^ of 
 """I1 wl i^n oycasi dfTl'S pre Senteo, to"rebel ; in the same manner as the bodies 
 of children, gotten ^aiseased parents, are subject either to untimely death, 
 or to purge the ill quality, derived from their vicious conception, by break- 
 ing out into boils and scabs. And when kings deny themselves some such 
 necessary power, it is not always, though sometimes, out of ignorance 
 of what is necessary to the office they undertake ; but many times out of a 
 hope to recover the same again at their pleasure. Wherein they reason not 
 well ; because such as will hold them to their promises, shall be maintained 
 against them by foreign commonwealths ; who in order to the good of their 
 own subjects let slip few occasions to " weaken " the estate of their neigh- 
 bours. So was Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, supported 
 against Henry the Second, by the Pope ; the subjection of ecclesiastics to 
 the commonwealth, having been dispensed with by William the Conqueror 
 at his reception, when he took an oath not to infringe the liberty of the 
 Church. And so were the barons, whose power was by William Rufus, to 
 have their help in traiisferring the succession from his elder brother to 
 
148 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 himself, increased to a degree inconsistent with the sovereign power, main- 
 tained in their rebellion against king John, by the French. 
 
 Nor does this happen in monarchy only. For whereas the style of the 
 ancient Roman commonwealth was "the senate and people of Rome," 
 neither senate nor people pretended to the whole po&er ; which first caused 
 the seditions of Tiberius Gracchus, Caius Gracchus, Lucius Saturninus, and 
 others ; and afterwards the wars between the senate and the people, under 
 Marius and Sylla; and again under Pompey and Csesar, to the extinction of 
 their democracy, and the setting up of monarchy. 
 
 The people of Athens bound themselves but from one only action ; which 
 was, that no man on pain of death should propound the renewing of the 
 war for the island of Salamis ; and yet thereby, if Solon had not caused to 
 be given out he was mad, and afterwards in gesture and habit of a madman, 
 and in verse, propounded it to the people that flocked about him, they had 
 had an enemy perpetually in readiness, even at the gates of their city ; such 
 damage or shifts are all commonwealths forced to, that have their power 
 so little Umited. 
 
 t In the second place, I observe the "diseases " of a commonwealth, that 
 proceed from the poison of seditious doctrines, whereof one is, " That every 
 private man is judge of good- and evil actions." This is true in the condition 
 of mere nature, where there are no civil laws ; and also under civil govern- 
 ment, in such cases as are^ot determined by the law. But otherwise, it is 
 manifest, that the measure of good and evil actions, is the civil law ; and 
 the judge the legislator, who is always representative of the commonwealth. 
 From this false doctrine, men are Hlc]22;g>t_fi^ fl»hnt<. ^yjfVi thpurifilYI" and 
 dispute the commands of the commonwealth ; and afterwards to obey or 
 disobeyjhem, as intheir_paiirate judgments they shall think fit ; whereby 
 
 ge commonTJEaltiris distracted and "weakened." 
 
 Another doctrine repugnant to civil society, is, that " whatsoever a man 
 5oes against his conscience is sin ;" and it dependeth on the presumption 
 [of making himself judge of go6d and evil. For a man's conscience and his 
 judgment is the same thing, and as the judgment.so also the conscience may be 
 erroneous. Therefore, though he that is subject to no civil law, sinneth in 
 all he does against his conscience, because he has no other rule to follow 
 but his own reason ; yet it is not so with him that lives in a commonwealth ; 
 because the law is the public conscience, by which he hath already uiider- 
 taken to be guided. Otherwise in such diversity, as there is of private 
 consciences, which are but private opinions, the commonwealth must needs 
 be distracted, and no man dare to obey the sovereign power, further than it 
 shall seem good in his own eyes. 
 
 /it hath been also commonly taught, "that faith and sanctity, are not to 
 tie attained by study and reason, but by supernatural inspiration or infusion." 
 'Which granted, I see not why any man should render a reason of his faith ; 
 or why every Christian should not be also a prophet ; or why any man 
 slrould take the law of his country rather than his own inspiration for the 
 rule of his action. And thus we fall again in the fault of taking upon us to 
 judge of good and evil ; or to make judges of it, such private men as pre- 
 tend to be supematurally inspired, to the dissolution of all civil govern- 
 ment. Faith comes by heaving, and hearing by those accidents which 
 guide us into the presence of them that speak to us ; which accidents are 
 all contrived by God Almighty ; and yet are not supernatural, but only, for 
 the great number of them that concur to every effect, unobservable. Faith 
 and sanctity are indeed not very frequent ; but yet they are not miracles, 
 but brought to pass by education, discipline, correction, and other natural 
 ways, by which God worketh them in His elect, at such times as He thinketh 
 fit. And these three opinions, pernicious to peace and ggvernpent, hav? 
 
DISSOLUTION OF COMMONWEALTHS. 149 
 
 m this part of the world, proceeded chiefly from the tongues and pens of 
 unlearned divines, who joining the words of Holy Scripture together, 
 otherwise than is agreeable to reason, do what they can to make men think 
 
 Jt sanctity and naturaF reason cannot stand together. 
 V fourth opinion, repugnant to the nature of a commonwealth, is this, 
 hat he that hath the sovereign power is subject to the civil laws." It is 
 e, that sovereigns are all subject to the laws of Nature; because such laws 
 uc divine, and cannot by any man or commonwealth be abrogated. But to 
 those laws which the sovereign himself, that is, which the commonwealth 
 maketh, he is not subject. For to be subject to laws is to be subject to the 
 commonwealth, that is to the sovereign representative, that is to himself ; 
 which is not subjection, but freedom from the laws. Which error, because 
 it setteth the laws above the sovereign, setteth also a judge above him and 
 a power to punish him ; which is to make a new sovereign ; and again for 
 the same reason a third, to punish the second ; and so continually without 
 end, to the confusion and dissolution of the commonwealth. 
 / A fifth doctrine that tendeth to the dissolution of a commonwealth is, 
 y that every private man has an absolute propriety in his goods ; such as 
 (excludeth the right of the sovereign." Every man has indeed a propriety 
 that excludes the right of every other subject : and he has it only from tlie 
 sovereign power ; without the protection whereof every other man should 
 have equal right to the same. But if the right of the sovereign also be 
 excluded, he cannot perform the office they have put him into ; which is, 
 to defend them both from foreign enemies, and from the injuries of one 
 another ; and consequently there is no longer a commonwealth. 
 
 And if the propriety of subjects exclude not the right of the sovereign 
 representative to tlieir goods ; much less to their offices of judicature or 
 execution, in which they represent the sovereign himself. 
 
 There is a sixth doctrine plainly and directly against the essence of i 
 commonwealth ; and it is this, ' ' that the sovereign power may be dividedV' 
 For what is it to divide the power of a commonwealth, but to dissolve it ; 
 for powers divided mutually destroy each other. And for these doctrines 
 men are chiefly beholding to some of those that making profession of the 
 laws, endeavour to make them depend upon their own learning, and not 
 upon the legislative power. 
 
 And as false doctrine, so also oftentimes the example of different govern- 
 ment in a neighbouring nation, disposeth men to alteration of the form 
 already settled. So the people of the Jews were stirred up to reject God, 
 and to call upon the prophet Samuel for a king after the manner of the 
 nations : so also the lesser cities of Greece were continually disturbed wiih 
 seditions of the aristocratical and democratical factions ; one part of almost 
 every commonwealth desiring to imitate the Lacedemonians ; the other the 
 Athenians. And I doubt not but many men have been contented to see 
 the late troubles in England out of an imitation of the Low Countries ; sup- 
 posing there needed no more to grow rich than to change, as they had 
 done, the form of their government. For the constitution of man's nature 
 is of itself subject to desire novelty. When therefore they are provoked to 
 the same by the neighbourhood also of those that have been enriched by it, 
 it is almost impossible for them not to be content with those that solicit 
 them to change ; and love the first beginnings, though they be grieved with 
 the continuance of disorder ; like hot bloods, that having gotten the itch, 
 tear themselves with their own nails, till they can endure the smart no 
 longer. 
 
 And as to rebellion in particular against monarchy; one of the most 
 frequent causes of it is the reading of the books of policy and histories of 
 the ancient Greeks and Romans ; from which young men, and all others 
 
ijo OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 that are unprovided of the antidote of solid reason, receiving a strong and 
 delightful impression of the great exploits of war, achieved by the con- 
 ductors of their armies, receive Vfithal a pleasing idea of all they have done 
 besides ; and imagine their great prosperity, not to have proceeded from 
 the emulation of particular men, but from the virtue of their popular form 
 of government : not considering the frequent seditions, and civil wars, 
 produced by the imperfection of their policy. From the reading, I say, of 
 such books, men have undertaken to kill their kings, because the Greek 
 and Latin writers, in their books and discourses of policy, make it lawful 
 and laudable for any man so to do ; provided, before he do it, he call him 
 tyrant. For they say not " regicide," that is, killing a king, but " tyran- 
 nicide," that is, killing of a tyraiit is lawful. ITrora the same books, they 
 that live under a monarch conceive an opinion, that the subjects in a 
 popular commonwealth enjoy liberty ; but that in a monarchy they are all 
 slaves. I say, they that live under a monarchy conceive such an opinion ; 
 not they that live under a popular government : for they find no such 
 matter. In sum, I cannot imagine how anything can be more prejudicial 
 to a monarchy than the allowing of such books to be publicly reaid, without 
 present applying such correctives of discreet masters, as are fit to take away 
 their venom : which venom I will not doubt to compare to the biting of a 
 mad dog, which is a disease the physicians call "hydrophobia," or '-fear 
 of water." For as he that is so bitten has a continual torment of thirst, 
 and yet abhorreth water; and is in such an estate, as if the poison endea- 
 voured to convert him into a dog : so when a monarchy'fe'^Bce Jjitten to 
 the quick by those democratical writers, that continually snarl at^hat 
 estate ; it wanteth nothing more than a strong monarch, which nevertheless 
 out of a certain " tyrannophobia," or fear of being strongly governed, when 
 they have him, they abhor. 
 
 As there have been doctors that hold there be three souls in a man ; so 
 there be also that think there may be more souls, that is, more sovereigns, than 
 one in a commonwealth ; and set up a " supremacy " against the "sove- 
 reignty;" " canons " against "laws;" and a " ghostly authority " against 
 the "civil;" working on men's minds with words, and distinctions, that of 
 themselves signify nothing, but bewray by their obscurity ; that there 
 walketh, as some think, invisibly another kingdom, as it were a kingdom of 
 fairies, in the dark. Now seeing it is inanifest that the civil power and the 
 power of the commonwealth is the same thing ; and that supremacy, and 
 the power of making canons, and granting faculties, implieth a common- 
 wealth ; it foUoweth that where one is sovereign, another supreme ; where 
 one can make laws, and another make canons ; there inust needs be two 
 commonwealths, of one and the same subjects ; which is a kingdom 
 divided in itselfi and cannot stand. F or notwithstanding the insig nificant 
 distJBCtjgB of-^UetHf>oraLiiaiid.li.£ hostly," they are still two EiUgg j^Sr and 
 evegLSufeje ct is subjec t toj^sa-jaaster^ s of SJKBniy the ' ' gliostly " power 
 challengetiTtLe right TcTEeclare what is sin, it challengeth by consequence 
 to declare what is law,- sin being nothing but the transgression of the law ; 
 and again, the civil power challenging to declare what is law, every subject 
 must obey two masters, who both will have their conimands be observed as 
 law ; which is impossible. Or, if.it be but one kingdom, either the " civil," 
 which is the power of the commonwealth, must be subordinate to the 
 "ghostly," and then there is no sovereignty but the "ghostly;" or the 
 "ghostly " must be subordinate to the " temporal," and then there is no 
 "supremacy" but the "temporal." When therefore these two powers 
 oppose one another, the commonwealth caimot but be in great danger of 
 civil war and dissolution. For the "civil" authority being more visible, 
 a!i4 standing in the clearer light of iiatural reason, cannot choose but dra\V 
 
DlSSOLUTJON OF COMMOhlWEALtHS. iji 
 
 to it in all times a very considerable part of the people : and the " spiritual," 
 though it stand in the darkness of school distinctions, and hard words, yet 
 because the fear of darkness and ghosts is greater than other fears, cannot 
 want a party sufficient to trouble, and sometimes to destroy a common- 
 wealth. And this is a disease which may not unfitly be compared to the 
 epilepsy, or falling sickness, which the Jews took to be one kind of 
 possession by spirits, in the body natural. For as in this disease, there is 
 an unnatural spirit, or wind in the head that obstructeth the roots of the 
 nerves, and moving them violently, taketh away the motion which naturally 
 they siiould have from the power of the soul in the brain, and thereby 
 causeth violent and irregular motions which men call convulsions in the 
 parts ; insomuch that he that is seized therewith, falleth down sometimes 
 into the water, and sometimes into the fire, as a man deprived of his senses ; 
 so also in the body politic, when the spiritual power nioveth the members 
 of a commonwealth, by the terror of punishments and hope of rewards, 
 which are the nerves of it, otherwise than by the civil power, which is the 
 soul of the commonwealth, they ought to be moved ; and by strange and 
 hard words suffocate their understanding, it must needs thereby distract 
 the people, and either overwhelm the commonwealth with oppression, or 
 cast it into the fire of a civil war. 
 
 Sometimes also in the merely civil government, there be more than one j ?>', , 
 soul ; as when the power of levying money, which is the nutritive faculty, ^^ 
 has depended on a general assembly ; the power of conduct and command, 
 which is the motive faculty, on one man ; and the power of making laws, 
 which is the rational faculty, on the accidental consent, not only of those 
 two, but also of a third ; this endangereth the commonwealth, sometimes 
 for want of consent to good laws, but most often for want of such nourish- 
 ment as is necessary to life and motion. For although few perceive that 
 such government is not government, but division of the commonwealth into 
 three factions, and call it mixed monarchy ; yet the truth is that it is not 
 one independent commonwealth, but three independent factions ; nor one 
 representative person, but three. In the kingdom of God, there may be 
 three persons independent, without breach of unity in God that reigneth ; 
 but where men reign that be subject to diversity of opinions, it cannot be 
 so. And therefore if the king bear the person of the people, and the 
 general assembly bear also the person of the people, and another assembly 
 bear the person of a part of the people, they are not one person, nor one 
 sovereign, but three persons, and three sovereigns. 
 
 To what disease in the natural body of man I may exactly compare this 
 irregularity of a commonwealth, I know not. But I have seen a man, 
 that had another man growing out of his side, with a head, arms, breast and 
 stomach of his own ; if he had had another man growing out of his other 
 side, the comparison might then have been exact. 
 
 Hitherto I have named such diseases of a commonwealth as are of the 
 greatest and most present danger. There be other not so great, which 
 nevertheless are not unfit to be observed. As first, the difficulty of raising 
 money for the necessary uses of the commonwealth, especially in the ap-" 
 proach of war. This difficulty ariseth from the opinion that every subject 
 hath a propriety in his lands and goods, exclusive of the sovereign's right 
 to the use of the same. From whence it cometh to pass that the sovereign 
 power, which foreseeth the necessities and dangers of the commonwealth, 
 finding the passage of money to tU? publie treasury obstructed by the 
 tenacity of the people, whereas it ought to extend itself to encounter and 
 prevent such dangers in their beginnings, contracteth itself as long as it can, 
 and when it cannot longer, struggles with the people by stratagems of law, 
 to obtain little sums, which not sufficing, he is fain at last violently to open 
 
152 OP COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 the way for present supply, or perish ; and being put often to these extremi- 
 ties, at last reduceth the people to their due temper, or else the common- 
 wealth must perish. Insomuch as we may compare this distemper very 
 nptly to an ague, wherein, the fleshy parts being congealed, or by venomous 
 matter obstructed, the veins which by their natural course empty themselves 
 into the heart, are not, as they ought to be, supplied from the arteries, 
 whereby theie succeedeth at first a cold contraction and trembling of the 
 limbs ; and afterward a hot and strong endeavour of the heart, to force a 
 passage for the blood ; and before it can do that, contenteth itself with the 
 small refreshments of such things as cool for a time, till, if nature be strong 
 enough, it break at last the contumacy of the parts obstructed, and 
 dissipateth the vemon into sweat ; or, if nature be too weak, the patient 
 dielh. 
 
 ,^ Again, there is sometimes in a commonwealth, a disease which resembleth 
 
 the pleurisy ; and that is, when the treasure of the commonwealth, flowing 
 
 { ■ ^ out of its due course, is gathered together in too much abundance, in one 
 
 iw' or a few private men, by monopolies or by farms of the public revenues ; 
 
 \ !*>> in the same manner as the blood in a pleurisy, getting into the membrane 
 •6 of the breast, breedeth there inflammation, accompanied with a fever and 
 
 /£ painful stitches. 
 s ^i Also the populariiy of a potent subject, unless the commonwealth have 
 " i ^/^ very good caution of his fidelity, is a dangerous disease ; because the people 
 •^ which should receive their motion from the authority of the sovereign, by 
 , " the flattery and by tlie reputation of an ambitious man are drawn away 
 "5 ^ from their obedience to the laws, to follow a man, of whose virtues and 
 
 ■i designs they have no knowledge. And this is commonly of more danger in 
 
 a popular government than in a monarchy ; because an army is of so great 
 force and multitude, as it may easily be made believe they are the people. 
 By this means it was that Julius Csesar, who was set up by the people 
 against the senate, having non to himself the affections of his army, made 
 himself master both of senate and people. And this proceeding of popular 
 and ambitious men, is plain rebellion ; and may be resembled to the effects 
 of witchcraft. 
 
 Another infirmity of a commonwealth is the immoderate greatness of a 
 town, when it is able to furnish out of its own circuit the number and 
 expense of a great army : as also the great number of corporations ; which 
 are as it were many lesser commonwealths in the bowels of a greater, like 
 worms in the entrails of a natural man. To which may be added the liberty 
 of disputing against absolute power, by pretenders to political prudence ; 
 which though bred for the most part in the lees of the people, yet animated 
 by false doctrines, are perpetually meddling with the fundamental laws, to 
 the molestation of the commonwealth ; like the little worms, which phy- 
 sicians call ascarides. 
 
 "We may furiher add, the insatiable appetite, or /SouXi^ia, of enlarging 
 dominion ; with the incurable " wounds " thereby many times received from 
 the enemy ; and the " wens " of ununited conquests, which are many times a 
 burthen, and with less danger lost than kept : as also the "lethargy" of 
 ease and "consumption" of riot and vain expense. 
 
 Lastly, when in a war, foreign or intestine, th&-e ncmio c gct -a final 
 yJiAssif-f so as, the forces of the commonwealth keeping the field no longer, 
 there4s-HO-fiiLtlie i_r>rot ecfio n of subjects in their loyalty ; thfn in thp com- 
 ^i!I!"'??-'J^ " '^'■''""''^'^'^r" im^ .mn "'a'T-kt^liberty to OTo tect "h imgelLby 
 liTch courses as_his jiwn dis^;^igi_s35alsugge5t untoTTimrToFTlTe sovereign 
 isTE?~pubric souT, giving life and motion to the commonwealth ; which 
 expiring, the members are governed by it no more, than the carcase of a 
 man, by his departed, though immortal soul. For though the right of a 
 
THE OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN. 153 
 
 sovereign monarch cannot be extinguished by the act of another ; yet the 
 oliligation of the members may. For he that wants protection may seek it 
 anywhere ; and when he hath it, is obliged, without fraudulent pretence of 
 having submitted himself out of fear, to protect his protection as long as he 
 is able. But when the power of an assembly is once suppressed, the right 
 of the same perisheth utterly ; because the assembly itself is extinct; and 
 consequently there is no possilaility for the sovereignty to re-enter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Of the Ogice of the Sovereign Representative, 
 
 The nffi^/.nf tv.f cn^r^fgim,^ be it a monarch or an assembly, c onsisteth in 
 tlie_e nd for which he wastru s^>■d witTi tlig„gnvpip;£'n pt^yyffr, T)am''ly, thf pro- 
 cutat Sn^l " the safety of the people \" to which he is obliged by the law of 
 Nature, and to render an account thereof to God, the author of that law, and 
 to none but Him. But by safety here, is notjneant a bare preservation, but 
 also all other con):enlments of life. whidLey^JTrian ■by:toLiful 3naustry, 
 without danger or hurt to the commonwealth, shall acquire to Jiimself. 
 
 And this is intended should be done, not by care applied to individuals, 
 further than their protection from injuries when they shall complain ; but 
 by a general providence contained in public instruction, both of doctrine 
 and example ; and in the making and executing of good laws„ to which 
 individual persons may apply their own cases. 
 
 And because, if the essential rights of sovereignty, specified before in the 
 eighteenth chapter, be taken away, the commonwealth is thereby dissolved, 
 and every man retumeth into the condition and calamity of a war with every 
 other man, which is the greatest evil that can happen in this life ; it is the 
 office of the sovereign to maintain those rights entire ; and consequently 
 against his duty, first, to transfer to another, or to lay from himself any of 
 them. For he that deserteth the means, deserteth the ends ; and he 
 deserteth the means, that being the sovereign, acknowledgeth himself 
 subject to the civil laws ; and renounceth the power of supreme judicature, 
 or of making war or peace by his own authority ; or of judging of the 
 necessities of the commonwealth ; or of levying money and soldiers, whe;i, 
 and as much as in his own conscience he shall judge necessary ; or of 
 making officers, and ministers both of war and peace ; or of appointing 
 teachers, and examining what doctrines are conformable or contrary lb the 
 defence, peace, and good of the people. Secondly, it is against his duty to 
 let the people be ignorant, or misinformed of the grounds and reasons of 
 those his essential rights ; because thereby men are easy to be seduced, and 
 drawn to resist him, when the commonwealth shall require their use and 
 exercise. 
 
 And the grounds of these rights have the rather need to be diligently and 
 truly taught ; because they cannot be maintained by any civil law, or terror 
 of legal punishment. For a civil law that shall forbid rebellion, (and such 
 is all resistance to the essential rights of the sovereignty,) is not, as a civil 
 law, any obligation, but by virtue only of the law of Nature, that forbiddeth 
 the violation of faith : which natural obligation, if men know not, they 
 cannot know the right of any law the sovereign maketh. And for the 
 punishment, they take it but for an act of hostility ; which when they think 
 they have strength enough, they will endeavour by acts of hostility to 
 avoid. 
 
154 OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 As I have heard some say, that justice is but a word, without substance ; 
 and that whatsoever a man can by force or art acquire to himself, not only 
 in the condition of war, but also in a commonwealth, is his own, which I 
 have already showed to be false : so there be also that maintain, that there 
 are no grounds, nor principles of reason, to sustain those essential rights 
 which make sovereignty absolute. For if there were, they would have been 
 found out in some place or other ; whereas we see there has not hitherto 
 been any commonwealth, where those rights have been acknowledged 
 or challenged. Wherein they argue as ill, as if the 'savage people of 
 America should deny there were any grounds, or principles of reason, so to 
 build a house as to last as long as the materials, because they never yet saw 
 any so well built. Time and industry produce every day new knowledge. 
 And as the art of well building- is derived from principles of reason, 
 observed by industrious men, that had long studied the nature of materials, 
 and the divers effects of figure and proportion, long after mankind beganv 
 though poorly, to build ; so, long time after men have begun to constituteA 
 commonwealths, imperfect, and apt to relapse into disorder, there may 
 principles of reason be found out, by industrious meditation, to ma ke their 1 
 constitution, excepting by external violence, everlasting. And--sUcli are \ 
 those which I have in this discourse set forth : which whether they come not t 
 into the sight of those that have power to make use of them, or be neglected-'^ 
 by them, or not, concemeth my particular interests, at this day, very little. 
 But supposing that these of mine are not such principles of reason ; yet I 
 am sure they are principles from authority of Scripture ; as I shall make it 
 appear, when I shall come to speak of the kingdom of God, administered by 
 Moses, over the Jews, His peculiar people by covenant. 
 
 But they say again, that though the principles be right, yet common 
 people are not of capacity enough to be made to understand (hem. I 
 should be glad that the rich and potent subjects of a kingdom, or thc«e that 
 are accounted the most learned, were no less incapable than they. But all 
 men know that the obstructions to this kind of doctrine proceed, not so 
 much from the difficulty of the matter as from the interest of them that are 
 to learn. Potent men digest hardly anjrthing that setteth up a power to 
 bridle their affections; and learned men anything that discovereth their 
 errors, and thereby lesseneth their authority : whereas the common people's 
 minds, unless they be tainted with dependence on the potent, or scribbled 
 over with the opinions of their doctors, are like clean paper, fit to receive 
 whatsoever by public authority shall be imprinted in them. Shall whole 
 nations be brought to " acquiesce" in the great mysteries of the Christian 
 religion, which are above reason, and millions of men be made believe that 
 thesame bodyniay be in innumerable places at one and the same time, 
 which is against reason ; and shall not men be able, by their teaching and 
 preaching, protected by the law, to make that received which is so con- 
 sonant to reason, that any unprejudicated man needs no more to learn it than 
 to hear it ? I conclude therefore that in the instruction of the people in 
 the essential rights which are the natural and fundamental laws of sove- 
 reignty there is no difficulty, whilst a sovereign has his power entire, but 
 what proceeds from his own fault, or the fault of those whom he tmsteth in 
 the administration of the commonwealth ; and consequently It is his duty to 
 c ause them so to be insti- ucted/: and not only his duty, but his benefit also, 
 and security agamst lUe ilaiiy<?r that may arrive to himself in his natural 
 person from rebellion. 
 
 And to descend to particulars, the people are to be taught, first, that 
 they ought not to be in love with any form of government they see in their 
 neighbour nations more than with their own, nor whatsoever present 
 piosperity they behold in nations that are otherwise governed than they, to 
 
THE OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN. 155 
 
 desire change. For the prosperity of a people ruled by an aristocratical or 
 democratical assembly, cometh not from aristocracy nor from democracy, 
 but from the obedience and concord of the subjects : nor do the people 
 flourish in a monarchy because one man has the right to rule them, but 
 because they obey him. Take away in any kind of state the obedience, and 
 consequently the concord of the people, and they shall not only not flourish, 
 but in short time be dissolved. And fhey that gu about by disobedience 
 to do no more than reform the commonwealth, shall find they do thereby 
 destroy it7 like the foolish daughters of Peleus, in the fable ; which desiring 
 to renew the youth of their decrepid father, did by the counsel of Medea 
 cut him in pieces, and boil him, together with strange herbs, but made not 
 of him a new man. This desire of change is like the breach of the first of 
 God's commandments: for there God says, Non habebis Deos alienos; 
 Thou shaft not have the gods of other nations ; and in another place con- 
 cerning "kings," that they are "gods." 
 
 Secondly, they are to be taught that they ought not to be led with 
 admiration of the virtue of any of their fellow-subjects, how high soever 
 he stand, or how conspicuously soever he shine in the commonwealth ; nor 
 of any assembly, except the sovereign assembly, so as to defer to them any 
 obedience, or honour, appropriate to the sovereign only, whom, in their 
 
 Particular stations, they represent ; nor to receive any influence from them, 
 ut such as is conveyed by them from the sovereign aulhority. For that 
 sovereign cannot be imagined to love his people as he ought, that is not 
 jealous of them, but suffers them by the flattery of popular men to be 
 seduced from their loyalty, as they have often been, not only secretly, but 
 openly, so as to proclaim marriage with them in facie ecdesiee by preachers, 
 and by publishing the same in the open streets, which may fitly be com- 
 pared to the violation of the second of the ten commandments. 
 
 Thirdly, in consequence to this, they ought to be informed how great a 
 fault it is to speak evil of the sovereign representative, whether one man, 
 or an assembly of men ; or to argue and dispute his power, or any way to 
 (ise his name irreverently, whereby he may be brought into contempt with 
 his people, and their obedience, in which the safety of the commonwealth 
 consistetli, slackened. Which doctiine the third commandent by resem- 
 blance pointeth ta 
 
 Fourthly, seeing people cannot be taught this, nor when it is taught, 
 remember it, nor after one generation past, so much as know in whom the 
 sovereign power is placed, without setting apart from their ordinary labour, 
 some certain times, in which they may attend those that are appointed to 
 instnict them ; it is necessary that some such times be determined, wherein 
 they may assemble together, and, after prayers and praises given to God, 
 the Sovereign of sovereigns, hear those their duties told them, and the 
 positive laws, such as generally concern them all, read and expounded, and 
 be put in mind of the authority that maketh them laws. To this end had 
 the Jews eveiy seventh day a sabbath, in which the law was read and ex- 
 pounded ; and in the solemnity whereof they were put in mind that their 
 king was God ; that having created the world in six days, He rested the 
 seventh day ; and by their resting on it from their labour, that that God 
 was their king, which redeemed them from their servile and painful labour 
 in Egypt, and gave them a time, after they had rejoiced in God, to take 
 joy also in themselves by lawful recreation. So that the first table of the 
 commandments is spent all in setting down the sum of God's absolute 
 power, not only as God, but as king by pact in peculiar of the Jews ; and 
 may therefore give light to those that have sovereign power conferred on 
 them by the consent of men, to ses what doctrine they ought to teach their 
 subjects. 
 
I5C OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 And because the first instruction of children dependeth on the care of 
 their parents, it is necessarv that they should be obedient to them whilst 
 tliey are under their tuition/; and not only so, but that also afterwards, as 
 gratitude requireth, they acknowledge the benefit of their education by ex- 
 ternal signs of honour. To which end they are to be taught that 
 originally the father of every man was also his sovereign lord, with power 
 over him of life and death ; and that the fathers of families, when by 
 instituting a commonwealth, they resigned that absolute power, yet it was 
 never intended they should lose the honour due unto them for their educa- 
 tion. For to relinquish such right was not necessary to the institution of 
 sovereign power ; nor would there be any reason why any man sliould 
 desire to have children, or take the care to nourish and instruct them, if they 
 were afterwards to have no other benefit from them than from other men. 
 And this accordeth with the fifth commandment. 
 
 Again, every sovereign ought to cause justice to be taught, which, con- 
 sisting in taking from no man what is his, is as mucli as to say, to cause 
 men to be taught not to deprive their neighbours, by violence or fraud, of 
 anything which by the sovereign authority is theirs. Of things held in 
 propriety, those that are dearest to a man are his own life and limbs ; and in 
 the next degree, in most men, those that concern conjugal affection ; and 
 after them, riches and means of living. Therefore the people are to be 
 taught to abstain from violence to one another's person, by private revenges ; 
 from violation of conjugal honour ; and from forcible rapine and fraudulent 
 surreption of one another's goods. For which purpose also it is necessary 
 they be showed the evil consequences of false judgment, by corrapilon 
 either of judges or witnesses, whereby the distinction of propriety is taken 
 away, and justice becomes of no effect: all which things are intimated in 
 the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth commandments. 
 
 Lastly, they are to be taught that not only the unjust facts, but the 
 designs and intentions to do them, though by accident hindered, are 
 injustice ; which consisteth in the pravity of the will, as well as in the 
 irregularity of the act. And this is the intention of the tenth command- 
 ment, and the sum of the second table ; which is reduced all to this one 
 commandment of mutual charity, "thou shalt .love thy neighbour as 
 thyself:" as the sum of the first table is reduced to "the love of God;" 
 whom they hadtlien newly received as their king. 
 
 As for the means and conduits, by which the people may receive this 
 instruction, we are to search by what means so many opinions, contrary to 
 the peace of mankind, upon weak and false principles, have nevertheless 
 been so deeply rooted in them. I mean those which I have in the precedent 
 chapter specified : as that men shall judge of what is lawful and unlawful, 
 not by the law itself, but by their own consciences ; that is to say, by their 
 own private judgments : that subje.cts sin in obeying the commands of the 
 commonwealth, unless they themselves have first judged them to be lawful: 
 that their propriety in their riches is such, as to exclude the dominion which 
 the commonwealth hath over the same : that it is lawful for subjects to kill 
 such as they call tyrants : that the sovereign power may be divided, and the 
 like ; which come to be instilled into the people by this means. They whom 
 necessity or covetousness keepeth attent on their trades and labour ; and 
 they, on the other side, whom superfluity or sloth carjieth after their sen- 
 sual pleasures ; which two sorts of men take up the greatest part of man- 
 kind ; being diverted from the deep meditation, which the learning of 
 truth, not only in the matter of natural justice, but also of all other sciences 
 necessarily requireth, receive the notions of their duty, chiefly from divines 
 in the pulpit, and partly from such of their neighbours or familiar acquaint- 
 ance, as having the faculty of discoursing readily and plausibly, seem wiser 
 
THE OFPICE OP The SOVEREIGN. 157 
 
 and better learned in cases of law and conscience, than themselves. And 
 the divines and such others as make show of learning, derive their knowledge 
 from the universities, and from the schools of law, or from the books, which 
 by men, eminent in those schools and universities, have been published. It 
 is therefore manifest that the instruction of the people depende tli wholly on 
 t he right tenrhinjr pf y^ml-. ^y, ij^^-T^pfycfeitt^ P.iV org r,r.l ^ moy some man 
 say, the universities of England learned enough already to do that ? or is it 
 you will undertake to teach the universities ? Hard questions. Yet to the 
 first I doubt not to answer ; that till towards the latter end of Henry the 
 Eighth, the power of the Pope was always upheld against the power of 
 the commonwealth, principally by the universities ; and that the doctrines 
 maintained by so many preachers against the sovereign power of the king, 
 and by so many lawyers and others that had their educatiou there, is a 
 sufficient argument, that though the universities were not authors of those 
 false doctrines, yet they knew not how to plant the true. For in such a 
 contradiction of opinions, it is most certain that they have not been 
 sufficiently instructed ; and it is no wonder if they yet retain a relish of that 
 subtle liquor, wherewith they were first seasoned, against the civil authority. 
 But to the latter question it is not fit nor needful for me to say either aye 
 or no : for any man that sees what I am doing, may easily perceive what I 
 think. 
 
 The '^ijfly n*" 'h" p>'r.p1>. l equireth further, from him or them that have 
 the sovereign power, th at justice be eoua lly administered to all_de^rees of 
 peopW ; that is, that as well the rich and mighty, as poor aJTd otscure 
 persons, may be righted of the injuries done them ; so as the great may 
 have no greater hope of impunity, when they do violence, dishonour, or any 
 injury to the meaner sort, than when one of these does the like to one of 
 them : for in this consisteth equity ; to which, as being a precept of the law 
 of Nature, a sovereign is as much subject as any of the meanest of 
 his people. All breaches of the law are offences against the common- 
 wealth : but there be some that are also against private persons. Those that 
 concern the commonwealth only may without breach of equity be pardoned, 
 for every man may pardon what is done against himself, according to his own 
 discretion. But an offence against a private man cannot in equity be 
 pardoned, without the consent of him that is injured, or reasonable satis- 
 faction. 
 
 The inequality of subjects proceedelh from the acts of sovereign power ; 
 and therefore has no more place in the presence of the sovereign, that is to 
 say, in a court of justice, than the inequality between kings and their 
 subjects, in the presence of the King of kmgs. The honour of great persons 
 is to be valued for their beneficence and the aids they give to men of 
 inferior rank, or not at all. And the violences, oppressions, and injuries they 
 do, are not extenuated, but aggravated by the greatness of their persons ; 
 because they have least need to commit them. The consequences of this 
 partiality towards the great, proceed in this manner. Impunity makelh 
 insolence ; insolence, hatred ; and hatred, an endeavour to pull down all 
 oppressing and contumelious greatness, though with the ruin of the com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 To equal justice appertaineth also the equal imposition of taxes ; the 
 equality whereof dependeth not on the equality of riches, but on the equality 
 of the debt that every man oweth to the commonwealth for his defence. It 
 is not enough for a man to labour for the maintenance of his life ; but also 
 to fight, if need be, for the securing of his labour. They must either do as 
 the Jews did after their return from captivity, in re-edifying the temple, build 
 with one hand, and hold the sword in the other ; or else ihey must hire 
 others to fight for them. For the impositions that are laid on the people by 
 

 158 OF COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 the sovereign power, are nothing else but the wages due to them tliat hold 
 the public sword to defend private men in the exercise of their several 
 trades and callings. Seeing then the benefit that every one receiveth 
 thereby, is the enjoyment of life, which is equally dear to poor and rich ; 
 the debt which a poor man oweth them that defend his life, is the same 
 which a rich man oweth for the defence of his ; saving that the rich, who 
 have the service of the poor, may be debtors not only for their own persons 
 but for many more. Which considered, the equality of imposition, con- 
 sisteth rather in the equality of that which is consumed than of the riches 
 of the persons that consume the same. For what reason is there that he 
 which laboureth much, and sparing the fruits of his labour, consumeth 
 little, should be more charged than he that living idly, getteth little, and 
 spendeth all he gets ; seeing the one hath no more protection from the 
 commonwealth than the other ? But when the impositions are laid upon 
 those things which men consume, every man payeth equally for what 
 he useth : nor is the commonwealth defrauded by the luxurious waste of 
 private men. 
 
 And whereas many men, by accident - inevitable, become unable to 
 maintain themselves by their labour ; they ought not to be left to the charity 
 of private persons ;. but to be provided for, as far forth as the necessities of 
 nature require by the laws of the commonwealth. For as it is uncharita- 
 bleness in any man to neglect the impotent ; so it is in the sovereign of a 
 commonwealth to expose them to the hazard of such uncertain charity. 
 
 ButiiBi suqJj^ have^strojig bodies, the case is otherwise : thejl.aJS_tS_be 
 fiiiced.lojKprJT^nd'£o avoid the excuse of not finding employment, there 
 ought to be such laws as may encourage all manner of arts, as navigation, 
 agriculture, fishing, and all manner of manufacture that requires labour. 
 The multitude of poor and yet strong people still increasing, they are to be 
 transplanted into countries not sufficiently inhabited : where nevertheless, 
 they are not to exterminate those thiy find there ; but constrain them to 
 inhabit closer together, and not to range a great deal of ground to snatch 
 what they find ; but to court each little ^lot with art and labour, to give 
 them their sustenance in due season. And when all the world is over- 
 harged with inhabitants, then the last Vemedy of all is war; which pro- 
 ideth for every man, by victory or death^ 
 
 To the care of the sovereign belongetn the making of good laws. But 
 what is a good law? By a good law I mean not a just law, for no law 
 can be unjust. The law is made by the sovereign power, and all that is 
 done by such power is warranted and owned by every one of the people ; 
 and that which evefy man will have so, no man can say is unjust. It is in 
 the laws of a commonwealth as in the laws of gaming : whatsoever the 
 gamesters all agree on, is injustice to none of them. A good law is that which 
 is " needful " for the "good of the people," and withal " perspicuous." 
 J For the use of laws, which are but rules authorized, is not to bind the 
 [people from all voluntary actions ; but to direct and keep them in such a 
 Ipnotion as not to hurt themselves by their own impetuous desires, rashness, 
 "or indiscretion ; as hedges are set, not to stop travellers, but to keep them 
 in their way. And therefore a law that is not needful, having not the true 
 end of a law, is not good. A law may be conceived to be good, when it is 
 for the benefit of the sovereign ; though it be not necessaiy for the people ; 
 but it is not so. For the good of the sovereign and people cannot be sepa- 
 rated. It is a weak sovereign that has weak subjects ; and a weak people, 
 whose sovereign wanteth power to rule them at his will. Unnecessary laws 
 are not good laws ; but traps for money : which where the right of sovereign 
 power is acknowledged, are superfluous ; and where it is not acknowledgedi 
 insufficient to defend the people. 
 
^TH^^OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN. 159 
 
 The perspicuity consisteth not so much in the words of the law itself, as 
 in a declaration of the causes and motives for which it was made. That is 
 it that shows the meaning of the legislator ; and the meaning of the legis- 
 lator known, the law is more easify understood by few than many words. 
 For all words are subject to ambiguity ; and therefore multiplication of 
 words in the body of the law is multiplication of ambiguity : besides it 
 seems to imply, by too much diligence, that whosoever can evade the 
 words, is without the compass of the law. And this is a cause of many 
 unnecessary processes. For when I consider how short were the laws of 
 ancient times, and how they grew by degrees still longer, methinks I see a 
 contention between the penners and pleaders of the law ; the former seek- 
 ing to circumscribe the latter, and the latter to evade their circumscriptions, 
 and that the pleaders have got the victory. It belongeth therefore to the 
 oiBce of a legislator (such as is in all commonwealths the supreme repre- 
 sentative, be it one man or an assembly) to make the reason perspicuous 
 why the law was made ; and the body of the law itself as short, but in as 
 proper and significant terms, as may be. 
 
 It belongeth also to the office of the sovereign to make a right application 
 of punishments and rewards. And seeing the end of punishing is not 
 revenge and discharge of choler ; but correction either of the offender or 
 of others by his example; the severest punishmeiits are. tcie-inflieted 
 for those crimes tha t. are _qL most danger to the jublic; such as are 
 those wftich proceed from malice to the government fetablished; those 
 that spring from contempt of justice ; those that provoke indignation in 
 the multitude; and those, which unpunished, seem authorized, as when 
 they are committed by sons, servants, or favourites of men in authority. 
 For indignation carrieth men not only against the actors and authors of 
 injustice ; but against all power that is likely to protect them ; as in the 
 case of Tarquin ; when for the insolent act of one of his sons, he was 
 driven out of Rome, and the monarchy itself dissolved. But crimes of 
 infirmity, such as are those which proceed from great provocation, from gieat 
 fear, great need, or from ignorance whether the fact be a great crime 
 or not, there is place many times for lenity, without prejudice to the 
 commonwealth ; and lenity, when there is such place for it, is required by 
 the law of Nature. The punishment of the leaders and teachers in a 
 commotion, not the poor seduced people, when they are punished, can 
 profit the commonwealth by their example. To be severe to the people, is 
 to punish that ignorance which may in great part be imputed to the 
 sovereign, whose fault it was that they were no better instructed. 
 
 In like manner it belongeth to the office and duty of the sovereign, to 
 apply his rewards always so, as there may arise from them benefit to the 
 commonwealth ; wherein consisieth their use and end ; and is then done, when 
 they that have well served the commonwealth, are with as little expense of 
 the common treasure as is possible, so well recompensed as others thereby 
 may be encouraged, both to serve the same as faithfully as they can, and to 
 study the arts by which they may be enabled to do it better. To buy with 
 money, or preferment, from a popular ambitious subject, to be quiet and 
 - desist from making ill impressions in the minds of the people, has nothing 
 of the nature of reward ; (which is ordained not for disservice, but for 
 service past ;) nor a sign of gratitude, but of fear ; nor does it tend to the 
 benefit, but to the damage of the public. It is a contention with ambition, 
 like that of Hercules with the monster Hydra, which having' many heads, 
 for every one that was vanquished, there grew up three. For in like 
 manner, when the stubbornness of one popular man is overcome with 
 reward, there arise many more by the example, that do the same mischief 
 in hope of like benefit : and as all sorts of manufacture, so also malice 
 
i6o OF COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 increasetli by being vendible. And though Eomelimes a civil wiir may be 
 deferred by such ways as that, yet the danger grows still the greater, and 
 the public ruin more assured. It i| therefore agaiast-. thg" <iu ly of the 
 sovereign, to whom the public_ jafefy Ts^ommltted, to^tfewaid-Xhose that 
 aspire"to grgShess 1By'distur"Eing'lhe^ace' of thejr' country, and not rather 
 
 la oppose the^begiiuiin'gi;5LiucKZm£O0'thr,C3l!S^- <^^^^ * 
 
 long^jiune .uitUogieSter. 
 
 """Another business of the sovereign, is to choose good counsellors ; I mean 
 such, whose advice he is to take in the government of the commonwealth. 
 For this word counsel, consilium, corrupted from considitim, is of a large 
 signification, and comprehendeth all assemblies of men that sit together, not 
 only to deliberate what is to be done hereafter, but also to judge of facts past, 
 and of law for the present. I take it here in the first sense only : and in this 
 sense, there is no choice of counsel, neither in a democracy nor aristocracy ; 
 because the persons counselling are members of the person counselled. 
 The choice of counsellors therefore is proper to monarchy ; in which, 
 the sovereign tliat endeavoureth not to make choice of those that in 
 erery kind are the most able, dischargeth not his office as he ought to do. 
 frhe most able counsellors are they that have least hope of benefit by 
 giving evil counsel, and most knowledge of those things that conduce to the 
 peace and defence of the commonwealtlu It is a hard matter to know 
 who expecteth benefit from public troubfe;; but the signs that guide to a 
 just suspicion is the soothing of the people in their unreasonable or irre- 
 mediable grievances, by men whose estates are not sufficient to discharge 
 their accustomed expenses, and may easily be observed by any one whom 
 it concerns to know it. But to know who has most knowledge of the public 
 aflairs, is yet harder ; and they that know them, need them a greal deal the 
 less. For to know who knows the rules almost of any art, is a great de- 
 gree of the knowledge of the same art ; because no man can be assured [of 
 the truth of another's rules, but he that is first taught to understand them. 
 But the best signs of knowledge of any art, are, much conversing in it, and 
 constant good effects of it. Good counsel comes not by lot, nor by inherit- 
 ance ; and therefore there is no more reason to expect good advice from the 
 rich or noble, in matter of state, than in delineating the dimensions of a 
 fortress ; unless we shall think there needs no method in the study of the 
 politics, as tliere does in the study of geometry, but only to be lookers-on ; 
 which is not so. For the politics is the harder study of the two. Whereas 
 in these parts of Europe, it hath been taken for a Hght of certain persons, to 
 have place in the highest council of stale by inheritance ; it is derived from 
 the conquests of the ancient Germans ; wherein many absolute lords joining 
 together to conquer other irations, would not enter into the confederacy, 
 withoul such privileges as might be marks of difference in time following, 
 between their posterity and the posterity of their subjects ; which privileges 
 being inconsistent with the sovereign power, by the favonr of the sovereign, 
 they may seem to keep ; but contending for them as their right, they must 
 needs by degrees let them go, and have at last no further honour than 
 adhereth naturally to their abilities. 
 
 And how able soever be the counsellors in any affair, the benefit of their 
 counsel is greater when they give every one his advice and the reasons of 
 it apart, than when they do it in an assembly, by way of orations ; and 
 when they have premeditated, than when they speak on the sudden ; both 
 because they have more time to survey the consequences of action, and 
 are less subject to be carried away to contradiction, through envy, emula- 
 tion, or other passions arising from the difference of opinion. 
 
 The best counsel in those things that concern not other nations, but only 
 the ease and benefit the subjects may enjoy, by laws that look only inward, 
 
THE OFFICE OF THE SOVEREIGN. i6i 
 
 is to be taken from the general informations and complaints of the people 
 of each province, who are best acquainted with their own wants, and ought 
 therefore, when they demand nothing in derogation of the essential rights 
 of sovereignly, to be diligently taken notice of. For without those 
 essential righls, as I have often before said, the commonwealth cannot at all 
 subs'st. 
 
 A commander of an army in chief, if he be not popular, shall riot be 
 beloved nor feared as he ought to be by his army, and consequently cannot 
 perform that office witli good success. He must therefore be industrious, 
 valiant, affable, liberal, and fortunate, that he may gain an opinion both of 
 sufficiency, and of loving his soldiers. This is popularity, and breeds in 
 the soldiers both desire and courage to recommend themselves to his favour, 
 and protects the severity of the general in punishing, when need is, the 
 mutinous or negligent soldiers. But this love of soldiers, if caution be not 
 given of the comir.ander's fidelity, is a dangerous thing to sovereign power ; 
 especially when it is in the hands of an assembly not popular. It belongeth 
 therefore to the safely of the people, both that they be good conductors and 
 faithful subjects to whom the sovereign commits his armies. 
 
 But when the sovereign himself is popular; that is, reverenced and 
 beloved of his people, theie is no danger at all from the popularity of a 
 subject. For soldiers are never so generally unjust as to side with their 
 ca|itain, though they love him, against their sovereign, when they love not 
 only his person, but also his cause. And therefore those who by violence 
 have at any time suppressed the power of their lawful sovereign, before they 
 could settle themselves in his place, have been always put to the trouble of' 
 contriving their ( itles, to save the people from the shame of receiving them. 
 To have a known right to sovereign jiower is so popular a quality, as he ' 
 that has it needs no more, for his own part, to turn the hearts of his subjects 
 to him, but that they see him able absolutely to govern his own family ; nor, 
 on the part of his enemies, but a disbanding of their armies. For the 
 greatest and most active part of mankind has never hitherto been well con- 
 tented with the present. 
 
 Concerning the offices of one sovereign to another, which are compre- 
 hended in that law, which is commonly called the "law of nations," I need 
 not say anything in this place, because the law of nations, and the law of 
 Nature, is the same thing. And every sovereign hatl^ ^ the . ^ame ri ght, in 
 prnriirinii ^^* rif"*r rf hi'i. pppl e j Jhat any i^adiculafc'maii-.ean -hav^ 
 pv».r„,-;r.g ti.^ ""O'ty "'' '■''• "wn t)Oflj.~ Anrf^ip same law that dictatetli to 
 men that have no civil government, what they ought to do, and what to 
 avoid in regard of one another, dictateth the same to commonwealths, that 
 is, to the consciences of sovereign princes and sovereign assemblies ; there 
 being no court of natural justice but in tlie conscience ot>ly : where not 
 man, but God reigneth ; whose laws, such of them as oblige all mankiml 
 in respect of God, as He is the author of Nature, are "natural ; " and in 
 respect of the same God, as He is King of kings, are " laws." But ofthe 
 kingdom of God, as King of kings, and as King also of a peculiar people, 
 I shall speak in IJie rest of this discourse. 
 
i62 OF COMMONWEALTH, 
 
 x:hapter XXXI. 
 
 Of the Kingdom of God by Naittre. 
 
 That the condition of mere nature, that is to say, of absolute liberty, 
 such as is theirs that neither are sovereigns nor subjects, is anarchy and the 
 condition of war : that the precepts by which men are guided to avoid that 
 condition are the laws of Nature : that a commonwealth, without sovereign 
 power, is but a word without substance, and cannot stand : that subjects 
 owe to sovereigns simple obedience, in all things wherein their obedience 
 is not repugnant to the laws of God, I have sufficiently proved in that 
 which I have already written. There wants only, for tlie entire knowledge 
 of civil duty, to know what are those laws of God. For without that a 
 man knows not, when he is commanded anything by the civil power, 
 whether it be contrary to the law of God or not : and so, either by too 
 much civil obedience, offends the Divine Majesty ; or through fear of 
 offending God, transgresses the commandments of the commonwealth. To 
 avoid both these rocks, it is necessary to know what are the laws divine. 
 And seeing the knowledge of all law dependeth on the knowledge of the 
 sovereign power, I shall say something, in that which foUoweth, of the 
 "Kingdom of God." 
 
 "God is king, let the earth rejoice," saith the Psalmist (xcvii. i). And 
 ^ain (Psalm xcix. i) : " God is king, though the nations be angry ; and 
 he that sitteth on the cherubims, though the earth be moved. " Whether 
 men will or not, they must be subject always to the divine power. By 
 denying the existence or providence of God, men may shake off their ease, 
 but not their yoke. But to call this power of God, which extendeth itself 
 not only to man, but also to fceasts and plants and bodies inanimate, by 
 the name of kingdom, is but a metaphorical use of the word. For he only 
 is properly said to reign that governs his subjects by his word, and by 
 promise of rewards to those that obey it, and by threatening them with 
 punishment that obey it not. Subjects therefore in the kingdom of God 
 are not bodies inanimate nor creatures irrational ; because they understand 
 no precepts as His : nor atheists, nor they that believe not that God has 
 any care of the actions of mankind ; because they acknowledge no word for 
 His, nor have hope of His rewards or fear of His threalenings. They 
 therefore that believe there is a God that governeth the world, and hath 
 given precepts, and propounded rewards and punishments to mankind, are 
 God's subjects ; all the rest are to be understood as enemies. 
 
 To rule by words, requires that such words be manifestly made known, 
 for else they are no laws : for to the nature of laws belongeth a sufficient 
 and clear promulgation, such as may take away the excuse of ignorance ; 
 which in the laws of men is but of one only kind, and that is, proclamation 
 or promulgation by the voice ot man. But God declareth His laws three 
 ways: by the dictates of " natural reason," by "revelation," and by the 
 "voice" of some " man," to whom by the operation of miracles he pro- 
 cureth credit with the rest. From hence there ariseth a triple word of 
 God, "rational," " sensible," and "prophetic:" to, which correspondeth 
 a triple hearing, "right reason," "sense supernatural," and "faith." 
 As for sense supernatural, which consisteth in revelation or inspiration, 
 there have not been any universal laws so given, because God speaketh 
 not in that manner but to particular persons, and to divers men divers 
 things. 
 
 From the difference between the other two kinds of God's word, "rational" 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 163 
 
 and "prophetic," there may be attributed to God a twofold kingdom, 
 "natural" and "prophetic;" natural, wherein He governeth as many of 
 mankind as acknowledge His providence by the natural dictates of right 
 reason ; and prophetic, wherein having chosen out one peculiar nation, the 
 Jews, for His subjects. He governed them, and none but them, not only by 
 natural reason, but by positive laws, which He gave them by the mouths of 
 His holy prophets. Of the natural kingdom of God I intend to speak in 
 this chapter. 
 
 The right of nature, whereby God reigneth over men, and punislieth 
 those that break His laws, is to be derived not from His creating them, as 
 if He required obedience as of gratitude for His benefits, but from His 
 "irresistible power." I have formerly shown how the sovereign right 
 arisetli from pact ; to show how the same rigjit may nrise from nature, 
 requires no more but to show in what case it is never taken away. Seeing 
 all men by nature had right to all things, they had right every one to reign 
 over all the rest. But because this right Could not be obtained by force, it 
 concerned the safety of every one, laying by that right, to set up men, with 
 sovereign authority, by common consent, to rule and defend them : whereas 
 if there had been any man of power irresistible, there had been no reason 
 why he should not by that power have ruled and defended both himself and 
 them, according to his own discretion. To those therefore whose power 
 is irresistible, the dominion of all men adhereth naturally by their excellence 
 of power ; and consequent ly it is from that power that the kingdom over 
 men, and the right of afflicting men at His pleasure, belongeth naturally to 
 God Almighty ; not as Creator and gracious, but as omnipotent. And 
 though punishment be due for sin only, because by that word is understood 
 affliction for sin ; yet the right of afflicting is not always derived from men's 
 sin, but from God's power. 
 
 This question, "why evil men often prosper, and good men suffer ad- 
 versity," has been much disputed by the ancient, and is the same with 
 this of ours, ' ' by what right God dispenseth the prosperities and adversities 
 of this life ; " and is of that difficulty, as it hath shaken the faith not only 
 of the vulgar, but of philosophers, and which is more, of the saints, concern- 
 ing the Divine Providence. " How good," saith David (Psalm Ixxiii. 1,2, 3) 
 " is the God of Israel to those that are upright in heart ; and yet my feet 
 were almost gone, my treadings had well-nigh slipt : for I was grieved at 
 the wicked, when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity." And Job, how 
 earnestly does he expostulate with God for the many afflictions he suffered, 
 notwithstanding hii righteousness ? This question in the case of Job is 
 decided by God Himself, not by arguments derived from Job's sin, but His 
 own power. For whereas the friends of Job drew their arguments from 
 his affliction to his sin, and he defended himself by the conscience of his 
 innocence, God Himself taketh up the matter, and having justified the 
 affliction by arguments drawn from His power, such as this (Job xxxviii. 4), 
 " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?" and the like, 
 both approved Job's innocence, and reproved the erroneous doctrine of his 
 friends. Conformable to this doctrine is the sentence of our Saviour, con- 
 cerning the man that was born blind, in these words : "Neither hath this 
 man sinned, nor his fathers : but that the works of God might be made 
 manifest in him. " And though it be said, ' ' that death entered into the 
 world by sin " (by which is meant, that if Adam had never sinned, he had 
 never died, that is, never suffered any separation of his soul from his body), 
 it follows not thence, that God could not justly have afflicted him, though 
 he had not sinned, as well as He afflicteth other living creatures that can- 
 not sin. 
 
 Having spoken of the right of God's sovereignty, as grounded- only on 
 
 F 3 
 
i64 Of COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 nature ; we are to consider next, what are the Divine laws, or dictates of 
 natural reason ; which laws concern either the natural duties of one man to 
 another, or the honour naturally due to our Divine Soversign. The first 
 are the same laws of Nature, of which I have spoken already iri the four- 
 teenth and fifteenth chapters of this treatise ; namely, equity, justice, mercy, 
 humility, and the rest of the moral virtues. It remaineth therefore that we 
 consider what precepts are dictated to men, by their natural reason only, 
 without other word of God, touching the honour and worship of the Divine 
 Majesty. 
 
 Honour consisteth in the inward thought and opinion of the power and 
 goodness of another ; and therefore to honour God, is to think as highly of 
 His power and goodness as is possible. And of that opinion, the external 
 signs appearing in the words and actions of men are called " worship ;" 
 which is one part of tliat which the Latins understand by the word cultus. 
 For cullus signifieth properly and constantly that labour which a man 
 bestows on anything, with a purpose to make benefit by it. Now those 
 things whereof we make benefit, are either subject to us, and the profit they 
 yield followeth the labour we bestow upon them, as a na'ural effect ; or 
 they are not subject to us, but answer our labour, according to their own 
 wills. In ihe first sense the labour bestowed on the earth is called 
 " culture ;'• and the education of children, a "culture " of their minds. In 
 the second sense, where men's wills are to be wrought to our purpose, not 
 by force, but by complaisance, it signifieth as much as courting, that is, a 
 winning of favour by good offices ; as by praises, by acknowledging their 
 power, and by whatsover is pleasing to them from whom we look for any 
 benefit. And this is properly ' ' worship :" in whichjsense Publicola is under- 
 stood for a worshipper of the people ; and cultus Dei, for the worship of 
 God. 
 
 From internal honour, consisting in the opinion of power and goodness, 
 arise three passions; "love," which hath reference to goodness; and 
 "hope," and "fear," that relate to power: and three parts of external 
 worship; "praise," "magnifying," and " blessing :" the subject of praise 
 being goodness ; the subject of magnifjing and -blessing being power, and 
 the effect thereof felicity. Praise and magnifying are signified both by 
 words and actions : by words, when we say a man is good or great : by 
 actions, when we thank him for his bounty, and obey his power. The 
 opinion of the happiness of another can only be expressed by words. 
 
 There be sonu; signs of honour, both in attributes and actionr, that be 
 naturally so ; as amongst attributes, "good," "just," " liberal," and the 
 like; and amongst actions, "prayers," "thanks," and "obedience." 
 Others are so by institution, or custom of men ; and in some times and 
 places are honourable ; in others, dishonourable ; in others, indifferent : 
 such as are the gestures in salutation, prayer, and thanksgiving, in different 
 times and places, differently used. The former is " natural ;" the latter 
 " arbitrary " worship. 
 
 And of ai'bitrary worship, there be two differences ; for sometimes it is a 
 "command," sometimes "voluntary" worship: commanded, when it is 
 such as he requireth who is worshipped ; free, when it is such as the 
 worshipper thinks fit. When it is commanded, not the words, or gesture, 
 but the obedience is the worship. But when free, the worship consists in 
 the opinion of the beholders : for if to them the words or actions by which 
 we intend honour, seem ridiculous, aad tending to contumely, they are 
 no worship, because no signs of honour ; and no signs of lionour, because a 
 sign is not a sign to him that giveth it, but to him to whom it ia made, that 
 is, to the spectator. 
 
 Agam, there is a " public " and a " private " worship. Public, is the 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 165 
 
 worship that a commonwealth performeth, as one person. Private, is that 
 which a private person exhibiteth. Public, in respect of the whole common- 
 wealth, is free ; but in respect of particular men, it is not so. Private, is 
 in secret free ; but in the sight of the multitude, it is never without some re- 
 straint, either from the laws, or from the opinion of men ; which is contrary 
 to the nature of libertj'. 
 
 The end of worship amongst men is power. For where a man seeth 
 another worshipped, he supposeth him powerful, and is the readier to obey 
 him ; which makes his power greater. But God has no ends : the worship 
 we do Him proceeds from our duty, and is directed according to our capacity, 
 by those rules of honour that reason dictateth to be done by the weak to the 
 more potent men, in hope of benefit, for fear of damage, or in thankfulness 
 for good already received from ihem. 
 
 That we may know what worship of God is taught us by the light of 
 Nature, I will begin with His attributes. Where, first, it is manifest, 
 we ought to attribute to Him " existence." For no man can have the will to 
 honour that which he thinks not to have any benig. 
 
 Secondly, that those philosophers who said the world, or the soul of the 
 world, was God, spake unworthily of Him ; and denied His existence. For 
 by God is understood the cause of the world ; and to say the world is God 
 is to say there is no cause of it, that is, no God. 
 
 Thirdly, to say the world was not created, but eternal, seeing that which 
 is eternal has no cause, is to deny there is a God. 
 
 Fourthly, that they who attributing, as they think, ease to God, take from 
 Him the care of mankind ; take from Him his honour : for it takes away 
 men's love, and fear of Him ; which is the root of honour. 
 
 Fifthly, in those things that signify greatness and power ; to say He is 
 " finite," is not to honour Him ; for it is not a sign of the will to honour 
 God, to attribute to Him less than we can ; and finite, is less than we can ; 
 because to finite, it is easy to add more. 
 
 Therefore to attribute " figure" to Him is not honour; for all figure is 
 finite : 
 
 Nor to say we conceive, and imagine, or have an " idea " of Him, in our 
 mind : for whatsoever we conceive is finite : 
 
 Nor to attribute to Him "parts," or " totality ; " which are the attributes 
 only of things finite : 
 
 Nor to say He is in this or that " place ; " for whatsoever is in place, is 
 bounded, and finite : 
 
 Nor that He is "moved," or " resteth ; " for both these attributes ascribe 
 to Him place : 
 
 Nor that there be more gods than one ; because it implies them all 
 finite : for there cannot be more than one infinite : 
 
 Nor to ascribe to Him, (unless metaphorically, meaning not the passion 
 but the effect,) passions that partake of grief; as "repentance," "anger," 
 "mercy;" or of want; as "appetite," "hope," "desire;" or of any 
 , passive faculty ; for passion is power limited by somewhat else. 
 
 And therefore when we ascribe to God a " will," it is not to be under- 
 stood, as that of man, for a " rational appetite ; " but as the power by 
 which He effecteth everything. 
 
 Likewise when we attribute to Him " sight," and other acts of sense ; as 
 also " knowledge," and " understanding;" which in us is nothing else but a 
 tumult of the mind, raised by external things that press the organical parts 
 of man's body ; for there is no such thing in God ; and being tilings that 
 depend on natural causes, cannot be attributed to Him. • 
 
 He that will attribute to God nothing but what is warranted by natural 
 reason, must either use such negative attributes as "infinite," "eternal," 
 
i66 01^ COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 "incomprehensible ;" or superlatives, as " most high," " most great," and 
 the like; or indefinite, as "good," "just," "holy," "creator;" and in 
 such sense, as if He meant not to declare what He is, (for that were to 
 circumscribe Him within the limits of our fancy,) but how much we admire 
 Him, and how ready we would be to obey Him ; which is a sign of humility, 
 and of a will to honour Him as much as we can. For there is but one 
 name to signify our conception of His nature, and that is, "I am :" and but 
 one name of His relation to us, and that is, " God ; " in which is contained 
 Father, King, and Lord. 
 
 Concerning the actions of divine worship, it is a most general precept of 
 reason, that they be signs of the intention to honour God ; such as are, 
 first, "prayers." For not the carvers, when they made images, were 
 thought to make them gods ; but the people that " prayed " to ihem. 
 
 Secondly, "thanksgiving;" which differeth from prayer in divine 
 worship, no otherwise than that prayers precede, and thanks succeed the 
 benefit ; the end, both of the one and the other, being to acknowledge 
 God for author of all benefits, as well past as futnre. 
 
 Thu-dly, "gifts," that is to say "sacrifices" and "cblalions," if they be 
 of the best, are signs of honour : for they are thanksgivings. 
 
 Fourthly, " not to swear by any but God," is naturally a sign of honour : 
 for it is a confession that God only knoweth the heart ; and that no man's 
 wit or strength can protect a man against God's vengeance on the perjured. 
 Fifthly, it is a part of rational worship to speak considerately of God ; 
 for it argues a fear of Him, and fear is a confession of His power. Hence 
 foUoweth that the name of God is not to be used rashly, and to no purpose ; 
 for that is as much as in vain : and it is to no purpose, unless it be by way 
 of oath, and by order of the commonwealth, to make judgments certain ; 
 or between commonwealths, to avoid war. And that disputing of God's 
 nature is contrary to His honour : for it is supposed that in this natural 
 kingdom of God, there is no other way to know anything but by natural 
 reason, that is, from the principles of natural science ; which are so far 
 from teaching us anything of God's nature, as they cannot teach us our own 
 nature, nor the nature of the smallest creature living. And therefore, when 
 • men out of the principles of natural reason, dispute of the attributes of God, 
 they but dishonour Him : for in the attributes which we give to God, we 
 are not to consider the signification of philosophical truth, i but the signifi- 
 cation of pious intention, to do Him the gi-eatest honour we are able. 
 From the want of which consideration, have proceeded the volumes of 
 disputation about the nature of God, that tend not to His honour, but to 
 the honour of our own wits and learning; and are nothing else but 
 inconsiderate and vain abuses of His sacred name. 
 
 Sixthly, in "prayers," "thanksgivings," "offerings," and " sacrifices," it 
 is a dictate of natural reason that they be every one in his kind the best, 
 and most significant of honour. As for example, that prayers and thanks- 
 giving, be made in words and phrases, not sudden, nor light, nor plebeian ; 
 but beautiful, and well composed. For else we do not God as much 
 honour as we can. And therefore the heathens did absurdly, to worship 
 images for gods : but their doing it in verse, and with music, both of voice 
 and instruments, was reasonable. Also that the beasts they offered in 
 sacrifice, and the gifts they offered, and their actions irr worshippiug, were 
 full of submission, and commemorative of benefits received, was according 
 to reason, as proceeding from an intention to honour Him. 
 
 Seventhly, reason directeth not only to worship God in secret ; but also, 
 and especially, in public, and in the sight of men. For without that, that 
 which in honour is most acceptable, the procuring others to honour Him, is 
 lost. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 167 
 
 Lastly, obedience to His laws, tliat is, in this case to the laws of Nature, 
 is the greatest worship of all. For as obedience is more acceptable to God 
 than sacrifice ; so also to set light by His commandments, is the greatest of 
 all contumelies. And these are the laws of that divine worship, which 
 natui-aldreason dictateth to private men. 
 
 But seeing a commonwealth is but one person, it ought also to exhibit to 
 God but one worship ; which then it doth, when itcommandeth it to be ex- 
 hibited by private men, publicly. And this is public worship ; the 
 property whereof is to be "uniform;" for those actions that are done 
 differently, by different men, cannot be said to be a public worship.' And 
 therefore, where many sorts of worship be allowed, proceeding from the 
 different religions of private men, it cannot be said there is any public 
 wocship, nor that the commonwealth is of any religion at {ill. 
 
 ^nd because words, and consequently the attributes of God, have their 
 signification by agreement and constitution of men, those attributes are to 
 be held significative of honour, that men intend shall so be ; and whatsoever 
 may be done by the wills of particular men, where there is no law but 
 reason, may be done by the will of the commonwealth, by laws civil. And 
 because a commonwealth hath no will, nor makes no laws, but those that 
 are made by the will of him or them that have the sovereign power ; it 
 foUoweth that those attributes which the sovereign ordaineth, in the wor- 
 ship of God, for signs of honour, ought to be taken and used for such, by 
 private men in their public worship. 
 
 But because not all actions are signs by constitution, but some are 
 naturally signs of honour, others of contumely ; these latter, which are 
 those that men are ashamed to do in the sight of them they reverence, 
 cannot be made by human power a part of divine worship ; nor the former, 
 such as are decent, modest, humble behaviour, ever be separated from it. 
 But whereas there be an infinite number of actions and gestures of an 
 indifferent nature ; such of them as the commonwealth shall ordain to be 
 publicly and universally in use, as signs of honour, . and part of God's 
 worship, are to be taken and used for sucli by the subjects. And that 
 which is said in the Scripture, " It is better to obey God than man," hath 
 place in the kingdom of God by pact, and not by nature. 
 
 Having thus briefly spoken of the natural kingdom of God and His 
 natural laws, I will add only to this chapter a short declaration of His 
 natural punishments. There is no action of man in this life that is not the 
 beginning of so long a chain of consequences, as no human providence is 
 high enough to give a man a prospect to the end. And in this chain, there 
 are linked together botli pleasing and unpleasing events ; in such manner, 
 as he that will do anything for his pleasure, must engage himself to sufter 
 all the pains annexed to it ; and these pains are the natural punishments of 
 those actions which are the beginning of more harm than good. And 
 hereby it comes to pass, that intemperance is naturally punished with 
 diseases; rashness, with mischances; injustice, with the violence of 
 enemies : pride, with ruin ; cowardice, with oppression : negligent govern- 
 ment of princes, with rebellion ; and rebellion, with slaughter. For seeing 
 punishments are consequent to the breach of laws ; natural punishments 
 must be naturally consequent to the breach of the laws of Nature ; and 
 therefore follow them as their natural, not arbitrary effects. 
 
 And thus far concerning the constitution, nature, and right of sovereigns, 
 and concerning the duty of subjects, derived from the principles of natural 
 reason. And now, considering how different this doctrine is from the 
 practice of the greatest part of the world, especially of these western 
 parts, that have received their moral learning from Rome and Athens ; 
 and how much depth of moral philosophy is required, in them that 
 
i68 OF COMMONWEAL TH. 
 
 have the administration of the sovereign power ; I am at the point of be- 
 lieving this my labour as useless as the commonwealtli of Plato. For 
 he also is of opinion that it is impossible for the disorders of state, and 
 change of governments by civil war, ever to be taken away, till sovereigns 
 be philoisophers. But when I consider again, that the science of»natural 
 justice is tlie only science necessary for sovereigns and their principal 
 ministers ; and that they need not be cliarged with the sciences mathe- 
 matical, as by Plato they are, farther than by good laws to encourage men 
 to the study of them ; and that neither Plato, nor any other pJ>ilosopher 
 liitherto, hath put into order, and sufficiently or probably proved all the 
 theorems of moral doctrine, that men may learn thereby,' both how to 
 govern and how to obey ; I recover some hope, that one ti/ne or other, 
 this writing of n)ine may fall into the hands of a sovereign, who will con- 
 sider it himself (for it is short, and I think clear), without the help of any 
 interested, or envious interpreter ; and by theexercise of entire sovereignty, 
 in protecting the public teaching of it, convert this truth of speculation into 
 the utility of practice. 
 
PART III.— OF A CHRISTIAN 
 COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 Of the Principles of Christian Politics. 
 
 I HAVE derived the rights of sovereign power, and the duty of subjects, 
 hitherto from the principles of Nature only ; such as experience has found 
 true, or consent concerning the use of words has made so, that is to say, 
 from the nature of men, known to us by experience, and from definitions 
 of such words as are essential to all political reasoning universally agreed 
 on. But in that I am next to handle, which is the nature and rights of a 
 " Christian Commonwealth," whereof there dependeth much upon super- 
 natural revelations of the will of God ; the ground of my discourse must 
 be, not only the natural word of God, but also the prophetical. 
 
 Nevertheless we are not to renounce our senses and experience ; nor that 
 which is the undoubted word of God, our natural reason. For they are the 
 talents which He hath put into our hands to negotiate, till the coming 
 again of our blessed Saviour ; and therefore not to be folded up in the 
 napkin of an implicit faith, but employed in the purchase of justice, peace, 
 and true religion. For though thene be many things in God's word above 
 reason ; that it is to say, which cannot by natural reason be either demon- 
 strated or confuted ; yet there is nothing contrary to it ; but when it 
 seemeth so, the fault is either in our unskilful interpretation, or erroneous 
 ratiocination. 
 
 Therefore when anything therein written is too hard for our examination, 
 we are bidden to captivate our understanding to the words ; and not to 
 labour in sifting out a philosophical truth by logic of such mysteries as are 
 not comprehensible, nor fall under any rule of natural science. For it is 
 with the mysteries of our religion as with wholesome pills for the sick, 
 which, swallowed whole, have the virtue to cure ; but chewed, are for the 
 most part cast up again without effect. 
 
 But by the captivity of our understanding, is not meant a submission of 
 the intellectual faculty to the opinion of any other man ; but of the will to 
 obedience, where obedience is due. For sense, memory, understanding, 
 reason, and opinion are not in our power to change ; but always and 
 necessarily such as the things we see, hear, and consider suggest unto us ; 
 and therefore are not effects of our will, but our will of them. We then 
 captivate our understanding and reason when we forbear contradiction ; 
 when we so speak, as by lawful authority we are commanded, and when we 
 live accordingly, which, in sum, is trust and faith reposed in him that 
 speaketh, though the mind be incapable of any notion at all from the words 
 spoken. 
 
 ^Yhen God speaketh to m.in, it must be either immediately ; or by medi> 
 
170 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 ation of another man, to whom He had formerly spoken by himself 
 immediately. How God speaketh to a man immediately, may be understood 
 by those well enough, lo whom He hath so spoken : but how the same 
 should be understood by another, is hard, if not impossible to know. For 
 if a man pretend to me, that God hath spoken to him supernaturally and 
 immediately, and I make doubt of it, I cannot easily perceive what argu- 
 ment he can produce to oblige me to believe it. It is true, that if he be my 
 sovereign, he may oblige me to obedience, so as not by act or word to 
 declare I believe him not ; but not to think any otherwise than my reason 
 persuades me. But if one that hath not such authority over me, should 
 pretend the same, there is nothing that exacteth either belief or obe- 
 dience. 
 
 For to say that God hath spoken to him in the Holy Scripture, is not to 
 say God hath spoken to him immediately, but by mediation of the prophets, 
 or of the apostles, or of the church, in such manner as He speaks to all 
 other Christian men. To say He hath spoken to him in a dream, is no 
 more than to say he dreamed that God spake to him ; which is not of force 
 to win belief from any man, that knows dreams are for the most part 
 natural, and may proceed from former thoughts; and such dreams as that, 
 from self conceit, and foolish arrogance, and false opinion of a man's own 
 godliness, or other virtue, by which he thinks he hath merited the favour 
 of extraordinary revelation. To say he hath seen a vision, or heard a voice, 
 is to say that he hath dreamed between sleeping and waking ; for in such 
 manner a man doth many times naturally take his dream for a vision as not 
 having well observed his own slumbering. To say he speaks by supernatuial 
 inspiration, is to say he finds an ardent desire to speak, or some strong 
 opinion of himself, for which he can allege no natural and sufficient reason. 
 So that though God Almighty can speak to a man by dreams, visions, voice, 
 and inspiration ; yet He obhges no man to believe He hath So done to him 
 that pretends it ; who, being a man, may err, and, which is more, may lie. 
 
 How then can he, to whom God hath never revealed His will immediately, 
 saving by the way of natural reason, know when he is to obey ornot to obey 
 his word, delivered by him that says he is a prophet ? Of four hundred 
 prophets, of whom the king of Isreal asked counsel concerning the war he 
 made against Ramoth Gilead (i Kings xxii.), only Micaiah was a true one. 
 The prophet that was sent to prophesy against the altar set U|i by Jeroboam 
 (l Kings xiii.), though a true prophet, and that by two miracles done in his 
 presence, appears to be a prophet sent from God, was yet deceived by 
 another old prophet, that persuaded him as from the mnuth of God, to eat 
 and drink with him. If one prophet deceive another, what certainty is 
 there of knowing the will of God, by other way than that of reason? To 
 which I answer out of the Holy Scripture, that there be two marks, by 
 which together, not asunder, a true prophet is to be known. One is the 
 doing of miracles ; the other is the not teaching any other religion than that 
 which is already established. Asunder, I say, neither of these is sufficient. 
 "If a prophet rise amongst you, or a dreamer of dreams, and shall pretend 
 the doing of a miracle, and the miracle come to pass ; if he say, Let us follow 
 strange gods, which thou has not known, thou shalt not hearken to him, 
 &c. But that prophet and dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, 
 because he hath spoken to you to revolt from the Lord your God." (Ueut. 
 xiii. 1-5.) In whicli words two things are to be observed; first, ihat God 
 will not have miracles alone serve for arguments, to approve the prophet's 
 calling ; but, as it is in the third verse, for an experiment of the constancy 
 of our adherence to Himself. For the works of the Egyptian sorcerers, 
 though not so great as those of Moses, yet were great miracles. Secondly, 
 that how great soever the miracle be, yet if it tend to stir up revolt against 
 
CHRISTIAN POLITICS. 171 
 
 the king, or him that goveineth by the king's authority, he that doth such 
 miracle is not to be considered othevw ise than as sent to make trial of their 
 allegiance. For these words, " revolt from the Lord your God," are in this 
 place equivalent to " revolt from your king." For they had made God 
 their king by pact at the foot of Mount Sinai ; who ruled them by Moses 
 only ; for he only spake with God, and from time to time declared God's 
 commandments to the people. In like manner, after our Saviour Christ 
 had made His disciples acknowledge Him for the Messiah, (that is to say, for 
 God's anointed, whom the nation of the Jews daily expected for their king, 
 but refused when He came,) He omitted not to advertise them of the danger 
 of miracles. "There shall arise," saith he, "false Christs, and false pro- 
 phets, and shalt do great wonders and miracles, even to the seducing, if it ■ 
 were possible, of the very elect." (Matt. xxiv. 24.) By which it appears 
 that false prophets may have the power of miracles ; yet are we not to take 
 their doctrine for God's word. St. Paul says farther to the Galatians 
 (Gal. i. 8), that " if himself, or an angel from heaven preach another gospel 
 to them, than he had preached, let him be accursed. " That gospel was 
 that Christ was King ; so thai all preaching against the power of the king 
 received, in consequence to these words, is by St. Paul accursed. For his 
 speech is addressed to those, who by his preaching had already received 
 Jesus for the Christ, that is to say, for King of the Jews. 
 
 And as miracles, without preaching that doctrine which God hath 
 established ; so preaching the true doctrine, without the doing of miracles, 
 is an insufficient argument of immediate revelation. For if a man that 
 teacheth not false doctrine, should pretend to be a prophet without showing 
 any miracle, he is never the more to be regarded for his pretence, as is 
 evident by Deut. xviii. 21, 22 : " If thou say in thy heart, How shall we 
 know that the word (of the prophet) is not that which the Lord hath 
 spoken? when the prophet shall have spoken in the name of the Lord, that 
 which shall not come to pass, that is the word which the Lord hath not 
 spoken, but the prophet has spoken it out of the pride of his own heart, 
 fear him not." But a man may here again ask, when the prophet hath 
 foretold a thing, how shall we know whether it will come to pass or not ? 
 For he may foretell it as a thing to arrive after a certain long time, longer 
 than the time of man's life ; or indefinitely, that it will come to pass one 
 time or other : in which case this mark of a prophet is unuseful ; and there- 
 fore the miracles that oblige us to believe a prophet, ought to be confirmed 
 by an immediate, or a not long deferred event. So that it is manifest, that 
 the teaching of the religion which God hath established, and the showing 
 of a present miracle, joined together, were the only marks whereby the 
 Scripture would have a true prophet, that is to say, immediate revelation, 
 to be acknowledged ; neither of them being singly sufficient to oblige any 
 other man to regard what he saith. 
 
 Seeing therefore miracles now cease, we have.no sign left whereby to 
 acknowledge the pretended revelations or inspirations of any private man ; 
 nor obligation to give ear to any doctrine, farther than it is conformable to 
 the Holy Scriptures, which since the time of our Saviour, supply the place, 
 and sufficiently recompense the want of all other prophecy ; and from which, 
 by wise and learned interpretation, and careful ratiocination, all rules and 
 precepts necessary to the knowledge of our duty both to God and man, 
 without enthusiasm or supernatural inspiration, may easily be deduced. 
 And this Scripture is it, out of which I am to take the principles of my dis- 
 course, concerning the rights of those that are the supreme governors on 
 earth of Christian commonwealths : and of the duty of Christian subjects 
 towards their sovereigns. And to that end, I shall speak in the next 
 chapter, of the books, writers, scope and authority of the Bible, 
 
172 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Of the Number, Antiquity, Scope, Authority, and Inltrprettrs of the 
 Books of Holy Scripture. 
 
 By the Books of Holy " Scripture," are understood those which ought to 
 be the " canon," that is to say, the rules of Christiam life. 
 
 And because all rules of life, which men are in conscience bound to 
 observe, are laws ; the question of the Scripture is the question of what is 
 law throughout all Christendom, both natural and civil. For though it bfe 
 not determined in Scripture what laws every Christian king shall constitute 
 in his own dominions ; yet it is determined what laws he shall not con- 
 stitute. Seeing therefore I have already proved that sovereigns in their own 
 dominions are the sole legislators, those books only are canonical, that is, 
 law, in every nation, which are established for such by the sovereign 
 authority. It is true, that God is the sovereign of all sovereigns ; and 
 therefore when He speaks to any subject. He ought to be obeyed, what- 
 soever any earthly potentate command to the contrary. But the question 
 is not of obedience to God, but of " when " and " what" God hath said ; 
 which to subjects that have no supernatural revelation, cannot be known, 
 but by that natural reason which guideth them for the obtaining of peace 
 and justice, to obey the authority of their several commonwealths, that is to 
 say, of their lawful sovereigns. According to this obligation, I can ac- 
 knowledge no other books of the Old Testament to be Holy Scripture, but 
 those which have been commanded to be acknowledged for such by 
 the authority of the Church of England. What books these are, is 
 sufficiently knovm without a catalogue of them here ; and they are the same 
 that are acknowledged by St. Jerome, who holdeth the rest, namely, the 
 Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobias, the first and 
 the second of Maccabees, (though he had seen the first in Hebrew,) and 
 the third and fourth of Esdras, for Apocrypha. Of the canonical, 
 Josephus, a learned Jew, that wrote in the time of the Emperor Domitian, 
 reckoneth " twenty-two," making the number agree with the Hebrew 
 alphabet. St. Jerome does the same, though they reckon them in different 
 manner. For Josephus numbers " five " Books- of Moses, "thirteen "of 
 Prophets that writ the history of their own times, (which how it agrees 
 with the prophets' writings contained in the Bible we shall see hereafter,) 
 and "four" of "hymns" and moral precepts. But St. Jerome reckons 
 " five " books of Moses, " eight " of Prophets, and " nine " of other 
 Holy Writ, which he calls of ayiSypaipa. The Septuagint, who were 
 seventy learned men of the Jews, sent for by Ptolemy, king of Egypt, to 
 translate the Jewish law out of the Hebrew into the Greek, have left us no 
 other for Holy Scripture in the Greek tongue, but the same that are 
 received in the Church of England. 
 
 As for the Books of the New Testament, they are equally acknowledged 
 for canon by all Christian churches, and by all sects of Christians, that admit 
 any books at all for canonical. 
 
 .Who were the original writers of the several Books of Holy Scripliire, 
 has not been made evident by any sufficient testimony of other history, 
 which is the only proof of matter of fact ; nor can be, by any argument of 
 natural reason : for reason serves only to convince the truth, not of fact, but 
 of consequence. The light therefore that must guide us in this question, 
 must be that which is held out imtg us from the bogks themselves ; and this 
 
OF THE BOOKS OF HOL Y SCRIPTURE. 173 
 
 light, though it show us not the writer of every book, yet it is not unuseful 
 to give us knowledge of the time wherein they were written. 
 
 And first, for the Pentateuch, it is not argument enough that they were 
 written by Moses, because they are called the five Books of Moses ; no 
 more than these titles, the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges, the Book 
 of Rutli, and the Books of the Kings, are arguments sufficient to prove 
 that they were written by Joshua, by the Judges, by Ruth, and by the 
 Kings. For in titles of books, the subject is marked as often as the Vfriter. 
 The histoiy of Livy denotes the writer, but the history of Scanderberg is 
 denominated from the subject. We read in the last chapter of Deuteronomy 
 (verse 6), concerning the sepulchre of Moses, " that no man knoweth of 
 his sepulchre to this day," ihat is, to the day wherein those words were 
 «iitten. It is therefore manifest, that those words were written after his 
 interment. For it were a strange interpretation to say Moses spake of his 
 own sepulchre, though by prophecy, that it was not found to that day 
 wherein he was yet living." But it may perhaps be alleged, that the last 
 chapter only, not the whole Pentateuch, was written by some other man, 
 but the rest not. Let us therefore consider that which we find in the Book 
 of Genesis (xii. 6), " And Abraham passed through the land to the place 
 of Sichem, unto the plains of Moreh, and the Canaanite was then in the 
 land ;" which must needs be the words of one that wrote when the 
 Canaanite was not in the land ; and consequently, not of Moses, who died 
 before he came into it. Likewise (Numbers xxi. 14) the writer citeth 
 another more ancient book, entitled, " The Book of the Wars of the Lord," 
 wherein were registered the acts of Moses at the Red Sea and at the brook 
 of Amon. It is therefore suflBciently evident, that the five Books of Moses 
 were wiitten after his time, though how long after it be not so manifest. 
 
 But though Moses did not compile those books entirely, and in the form 
 we have them, yet he wrote all that which he is there said to have written : 
 as for example, the Volume of the Law, which is contained, as it seemeth, 
 in the xith of Deuteronomy, and the following chapters to the xxviith, 
 which was also commanded to be written on stones, in their entry into 
 the land of Canaan. And this also did Moses himself write (Deut. xxxi. 
 9, 10), and delivered to the priests and elders of Israel, to be read every 
 seventh year to all Israel, at their assembling in the Feast of Tabernacles. 
 And this is that law which God commanded, tliat their kings, when they 
 should have established that form of government, should take a copy of 
 from the priests and Levites : and which Moses commanded the priests 
 and Levites to lay in the side of the ark ^Deut. xxxi. 26) ; and the same 
 which having been lost, was long time after found again by Hilkiah, and 
 sent to king Josias (2 Kings xxii. 8), who causing it to be read to the 
 people (2 Kings xxiii. i, 2, 3), renewed the covenant between God and 
 them. 
 
 That the Book of Joshua was also written long after the time of Joshua, 
 may be gathered out of many places of the book itself. Joshua had set ijp 
 twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, for a monument to their passage ; of 
 which the writer saith thus : " They are there unto this day" (Josh. iv. 9) ; 
 for " unto this day " is a phrase that signifieth u, time past, beyond the 
 memory of man. In like manner, upon the saying of the Lord that He 
 had rolled off from the people the reproach of Egypt, the writer saith, 
 " The place is called Gilgal unto this day" (Josh. v. 9); which to have 
 said in the time of Joshua had been improper. So also the name of the 
 valley of Achor, from the trouble that Achan raised in the camp, the writer 
 saith, " remaineth unto this day " (Josh. vii. 26) ; which must needs be 
 therefore long after the time of Joshua. Arguments of this kind there be 
 niany other, as Josh, viii. 29; xiii. 13 ; xiv. 14; xv. 63. 
 
174 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH: 
 
 The same is manifest by like arguments of the Book of Judges (chap. i'. 
 21, 26 ; vi. 24 ; X. 4 ; xv. 19 ; xvii. 6), and Ruth (i. 1) ; but especially Judges 
 (xviii. 30), where it is said that " Jonathan and his sons were priests to the 
 tribe of Dan, until the day of the captivity of the land." 
 
 That the Books of Samuel were ^so written after his own time there are 
 the like arguments (i Sam. v. 5 ; vii. 13, 15 ; xxvii. 6, and xxx. 25), where, 
 after David had adjudged equal part of the spoils to them that guarded 
 the ammunition with them that fought, the writer saith, " He made it a 
 statute and an ordinance to Israel to this day." Again, when David, dis- 
 pleased that the Lord had slain Uzzah, for putting out his hand to sustain 
 the ark, called the place Perez-Uzzah, the writer saith (2 Sam. vi. 8), it is 
 called so "to this day :" the time therefore of the writing of that book 
 must be long after the time of the fact ; that is, long after the time of 
 David. 
 
 As for the two books of the Kings, and the two books of the 
 Chronicles, besides the places which mention such monuments, as the 
 writer saiih, remained till his own days ; such as are i Kings ix. 13 ; ix. 21; 
 X. 12 ; xii. 19; 2 Kings ii. 22 ; viii. 22 ; x. 27; xiv. 7; xvi. 6; xvii. 23; xvii. 
 34 ; xvii. 41 ; and I Ciiron. iv. 41 ; v. 26 ; it is argument sufficient they were 
 Avritten after the captivity in Babylon, that the history of them is continued 
 till that time. For the facts registered are always more ancient than the 
 register ; and mucii more ancient than such books as make mention of and 
 quote the register ; as these books do in divers places, referring the reader 
 to the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, to the Chronicles of the Kings of 
 Israel, to the Books of the prophet Samuel, of the prophet Nathan, of the 
 prophet Ahijah ; to the Vision of Jehdo, to the books of the prophet 
 Serveiah, and of the prophet Addo. 
 
 The books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written certainly after their 
 return from captivity ; because their return, the re-edification of the 
 walls and houses of Jerusalem, the renovation of the covenant, and ordina- 
 tion of their policy, are therein contained. 
 
 The history of Queen Esther is of the time of the captivity ; and 
 therefore the writer must have been of the same time, or after it. 
 
 The book of Job hath no mark in it of the time wherein it was 
 written ; and though it appear suflSciently (Ezekiel xiv. 14, and James v. 
 II) that he was no feigned person ; yet the book itself seemeth not to be 
 a history, but a treatise concerning a question in ancient time much 
 disputed, " why wicked men have often prospered in this world, and good 
 men have been afflicted ; " and this is the more probable, because from the 
 beginning to the third verse of the third chapter, where the complaint 
 of Job beginneth, the Hebrew is, as St. Jerome testifieth, in prose ; and 
 from thence to the sixth verse of the last chapter, in hexameter verses ; and 
 the rest of that chapter again in prose. So that the dispute is all in verse ; 
 and the prose is added but as a preface in the beginning, and an epilogue 
 in the end. But verse is no usual style of such, as either are themselves in 
 great pain, as Job ; or of such as come to comfort them, as his friends ; but 
 in philosophy, especially moral philosophy, in ancient time frequent. 
 
 The Psalms were written the most part by David, for the use of the 
 quire. To these are added some songs of Moses, and other holy men ; 
 and some of them after the return from the captivity, as the 137th and the 
 126th, whereby it is manifest that the Psalter was compiled, and put into 
 the form it now hath, after the return of the Jews from Babylon. 
 
 The Proverbs, being a collection of wise and godly sayings partly of 
 Solomon, partly of Agur, the son of Jakeh, and partly of the mother of 
 king Lemuel; cannot probably be thought to have been collected by 
 Solomon, ratlier than by Agur or the mother of Lemuel ; and that though 
 
OF THE BOOKS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 175 
 
 the sentences be theirs, yet the collection or compiling them into this 
 one book was the work of some other godly man that lived after them 
 all. 
 
 The books of Ecclesiastes and the Canticles have nothing that was not 
 Solomon's except it be the titles or inscriptions. For The Words of the 
 Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem ; and The Song of 
 Songs, which is Solomon's, seem to have been made for distinction's 
 sake, then, when the books of Scriptute were gathered into one body of the 
 law ; to the end, that not the doctrine only, but the authors also might be 
 extant. , 
 
 Of the prophets, the most ancient are Zephaniah, Jonah, Amos, Hosea, 
 Isaiah, and Michah, who lived in the time of Amaziah, and Azariah, other- 
 wise Ozias, kings of Judah. But the book of Jonah is not properly a 
 register of his prophecy ; for that is contained in these few words, " Forty 
 days and Nineveh shall be destroyed ; " but a history or narration of his 
 frowardness and disputing God's commandments ; so that there is small 
 probability he should be the author, seeing he is the subject of it. But the 
 book of Amos is his prophecy. 
 
 Jeremiah, Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk prophesied in the time of 
 Josiah. 
 
 Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, and Zechariah, in the captivity. 
 
 When Joel and Malachi prophesied, is not evident by their writings. But 
 considering the inscriptions, or titles of their books, it is manifest enough 
 that the whole Scripture of the Old Testament was set forth in the form we 
 have it after the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, and 
 before the time of Ptolemseus Philadelphus, that caused it to be translated 
 into Greek by seventy men, which were sent him out of Judea for that pur- 
 pose. And if the books of Apocrypha, which are recommended to us by 
 the church, though not for canonical, yet for profitable books for our instruc- 
 tion, may in this point be credited, the Scripture was set forth in the form 
 we have it in, by Esdras : as may appear by that which he himself sailh, in 
 the second book (chapter xiv. verse 21, 22, &c.), where speaking to God, 
 lie saith thus: "Thy law is burnt; therefore no man knoweth the things 
 which thou hast done, or the works that are to begin. But if I have found 
 grace before thee, send down tlie holy spirit into me, and I shall write all 
 that hath been done in the world, since the beginning, which were written 
 in thy law, that men may find thy path, and that they which will live in 
 the latter day, may live." And verse 45 : " And it came to pass when the 
 forty days were fulfilled, that the highest spake, saying. The first that thou 
 hast written, publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it ; 
 but keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be 
 wise among the people." And thus much concerning the time of the writ- 
 ing of the books of the Old Testament. 
 
 The writers of the New Testament lived all in less than an age after 
 Christ's ascension, and had all of them seen onr .Saviour, or been His dis- 
 ciples, except St. Paul and St. Luke ; and consequently whatsoever was 
 written by them is as ancient as the time of the apostles. But the time wherein 
 the books of the New Testament were received and acknowledged by the 
 church to be of their writing, is not altogether so ancient. For, as the 
 books of the Old Testament are derived to us, from no other time than that 
 of Esdras, who by the direction of God's spirit retrieved tliem, when they 
 were lost ; those of the New Testament, of which the copies were not 
 many, nor could easily be all in any one private man's hand, cannot be 
 derived from a higher time than that wherein the governors of the church 
 collected, approved, and recommended them to us, as the writings of those 
 apostles and disciples, under whose names they go. The first enumeration 
 
176 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 of all the books, both of the Old and Neiv Testament, is in the canons of 
 the apostles supposed to be collected by Clement, the first (after St. Peter) 
 bishop of Rome. But because tliat is but supposed, and liy many 
 questioned, the Council of Laodicea is the first we know that recommended 
 the Bible to the then Christian churches, for the writings of the prophets 
 and apostles : and this Council was held in the 364th year after Christ 
 At which time, though ambition had so far prevailed on the great doctors 
 of the church as no more to esteem emperors, though Christian, for the 
 shepherds of the people, but for sheep ; and emperors not Christian, for 
 wolves ; and endeavoured 10 pass their doctrine, not for counsel and infor- 
 mation as preachers, but for laws as absolute governors ; and thought such 
 frauds as tended to make the people the more obedient to Christian 
 doctrine, to be pious ; yet I am persuaded they did not therefore falsify the 
 Scriptures, though the copies of the books of the New Testament were in 
 the hands only of the ecclesiastics, because if they had had an intention so 
 to do, they would surely have made them more favourable to their power 
 over Cliristian princes and civil sovereignty than they are. I see not there- 
 fore any reason 10 doubt but that the Old and New Testament, as we have 
 them now, are the true registers of those things which were done and said 
 by the prophets and apostles. And so perhaps are some of those books 
 which are called Apocrypha, and left out of the canon, not for inconformity 
 of doctrine with the rest, but only because they are not found in the 
 Hebrew. For after the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great, there 
 were few learned Jews that were not perfect in the Greek tongue. For the 
 seventy interpreters that converted the Bible into Greek, were all of them 
 Hebrews ; and we have extant the works of Philo and Josephus, both Jews, 
 written by them eloquently in Greek. But it is not the writer, but the 
 authority of the church that maketh the book canonical. And although 
 these books were written by divers men, yet it is manifest the writers were 
 all endued with one and the same spirit, in that ihey conspire to one and 
 the same end, which is setting forth of the rights of the kingdom of God, 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. For the book of Genesis deriveth 
 the genealogy of God's people, from the creation of the world to the going 
 into Egypt ; the other four books of Moses contain the election of God for 
 their king, and the laws which He prescribed for their government ; the 
 books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and Samuel, to the time of Saul, 
 describe the acts of God's people, till the time they cast off God's 
 yoke and called for a king, after the manner of their neighbour nations. 
 The rest of the history of the Old Testament derives the succession of the 
 line of David to the captivity, out of which line was to spring the restorer 
 of the kingdom of God, even our blessed Saviour God the Son, whose 
 coming was foretold in the books of the prophets, after whom the 
 Evangelists write His life and actions, and His claim to the kingdom, whilst 
 He lived on earth : and lastly, 'the Acts and Epistles, of the Apostles, 
 declare the coming of God, the Holy Ghost, and the authority He left 
 with them and their successors for the direction of the Jews, and for the 
 invitation of the Gentiles. In sum, the histories and the prophecies of the 
 Old Testament, and the gospels and epistles of the New Testament, have 
 had one and the same scope to convert men to the obedience of God : I. 
 in Moses and the Priests ; II. in the man Christ ; and iii. in the Apostles 
 and the successors to apostolical power. For these three at several times 
 did represent the person of God ; Moses and his successors, the High 
 Priests, and Kings of Judah, in the Old Testament : Christ himself, 
 in the time He lived on earth ; and the Apostles, and their successors, from 
 the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended on them, to this 
 day. 
 
OF THE BOOKS OF HOL Y SCRIPTURE. 177 
 
 It is a question much disputed between the divers sects of Christian 
 religion, "from whence the Scriptures derive their authority ;" which ques- 
 tion is also propounded sometimes in other terms, as, " how we know them 
 to be the word of God, or why we believe them to be so :" and the 
 difficulty of resolving it, ariseth chiefly from the impropemess of the words 
 wheiein the question itself is couched. For it is believed on all hands, that 
 the first and original " author " of them is God ; and consequently the ques- 
 tion disputed, is not that. Again, it is manifest, that none can know they 
 are God's word (though all true Clirislians believe it), but those to whom 
 God himself hath revealed it supematurally ; and therefore the question is 
 not rightly moved, of our "knowledge" of it. Lastly, when the question 
 is propounded of our "belief;" because some are moved to believe for 
 one, and others for other reasons ; there can be rendered no one general 
 answer for them all. The question truly stated is, " by what authority they 
 are made law." 
 
 As far as they differ not from the laws of Nature there is no doubt but 
 they are the law of God, and carry their authority with them, legible to all 
 men that have the use of natural reason : but this is no other authority, than 
 that of all other moral doctrine consonant to reason ; the dictates whereof 
 are laws, not "made," but "eternal." 
 
 If ihey be made law by God himself, they are of the nature of written 
 law, which are laws to them only to whom God hath so sufficiently pub- 
 lished them, as no man can excuse himself, by saying he knew not they 
 were His. 
 
 He therefore to whom God hath not supematurally revealed that they 
 are His, nor that those that published them were sent by Him, is not 
 obliged to obey them, by any authority, but his, whose commands have 
 already the force of laws ; that is to say, by any other authority than that 
 of the commonwealth, residing in the sovereign, who only has the legislative 
 power. Again, if it be not the legislative authority of the commonwealth, 
 that giveth them the force of laws, it must be some other authority derived 
 from God, either private or public : if private, it obliges only him to 
 whom in particular God hath been pleased to reveal it. For if every man 
 should be obliged to take for God's law what particular men, on pretence 
 of private inspiration or revelation, should obtrude upon him, in such a 
 number of men, that out of pride and ignorance, take their own dreams, 
 and extravagant fancies, and madness, for testimonies of God's spirit ; or 
 out of ambition, pretend to such divine testimonies, falsely, and contrary to 
 their own consciences, it were impossible that any divine law should be 
 acknowledged. If public, it is the authority of the "commonwealth," or 
 of the "church." But the church, if it be one person, is the same thing 
 with a commonwealth of Christians ; called a " commonwealth," because it 
 consisteth of men united in one person, their sovereign; and a "church," 
 because it consisteth in Christian men, united in one Christian sovereign. 
 But if the church be not one person, then it hath no authority at all : it can 
 neither command, nor do any action at all ; nor is capable of having any 
 power, or right to anything : nor has any will, reason nor voice ; for all 
 these qualities are personal. Now if the whole number of Christians be 
 not contained in one commonwealth, they are not one person ; nor is there 
 an universal church that hath any authority over them ; and therefore the 
 Scriptures are not made laws, by the universal church : or if it be one com- 
 monwealth, then all Christian monarchs and states are private persons, and 
 subject to be judged, deposed, and punished by an universal sovereign of 
 all Christendom. So that the question of the authority of the Scriptures, 
 is reduced to this, "whether Christian kings, and the sovereign assemblies 
 in Christian commonwealths, be absolute in their own territories, im- 
 
178 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 mediately under God ; or subject to one vicar of Christ, constituted of the 
 universal cliurch ; to be judged, condemned, deposed, and put to death, as 
 he shall think expedient, or necessary for the common good. 
 
 Which question cannot be resolved without a more particular considera- 
 tion of the Kingdom of God ; from whence also we are to judge of the 
 authority of interpreting the Scripture. For whosoever hath a lawful 
 power over any writing, to make it law, hath the power also to approve, 
 or disapprove, the interpretation of the same. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Of the Signification of Spirit, Angel, and Inspiration in the 
 Boohs of Holy Scripture. 
 
 Seeing the foundation of all true ratiocination is the constant signification 
 of words ; which in the doctrine following, dependeth not, as in natural 
 science, on the will of the writer, nor, as in common conversation, on 
 vulgar use, but on the sense they carry in the Scripture ; it is necessai-y, 
 before I proceed any further, to determine, out of the Bible, the meaning 
 of such words, as by their ambiguity may render what I am to infer upon 
 them, obscure or disputable. I will begin with the words " body " and 
 " spirit," which in the language of the scSools are termed, " substances," 
 "corporeal," and "incorporeal." 
 
 The word " body," in the most general acceptation, signifieth that which 
 fiUeth or occupieth some certain room, or imagined place ; and dependeth 
 not on the imagination, but is a real part of that we call the " universe." 
 For the "universe" being the aggregate of all bodies, there is no real part 
 thereof that is not also "body ; " nor anything properly a " body," that is not 
 also part of that aggregate of all " bodies," the " universe." The same also, 
 because bodies are subject to change, that is to say, to variety of apparence 
 to the sense of living creatures, is called " substance," that is to say, 
 "subject " to various accidents : as sometimes to be moved ; sometimes to 
 stand still ; and to seem to our senses sometimes hot, sometimes cold, 
 sometimes of one colour, smell, taste, or sound, sometimes of another. 
 And this diversity of seeming, produced by the diversity of the operation of 
 bodies on the organs of our sense, we attribute to alterations of the bodies 
 that operate, and call them "accidents " of those bodies. And according 
 to this acceptation of the word, "substance" and "body" signify the 
 same thing ; and therefore " substance incorporeal " are words, which when 
 they are joined together, destroy one another, as if a man should say an 
 " incorporeal body." 
 
 But in the sense of common people, not all the universe is called body, 
 but only such parts thereof as tliey can discern by the sense of feeling, to 
 resist their force, or by the sense of their eyes, to hinder them from a farther 
 prospect. Therefore in the common language of men, "air " and "aerial 
 substances," use not to be taken for "bodies," but (as often as men are 
 sensible of their effects) are called "wind," or "breath," or (because the 
 same are called in the Latin spiritus) "spirits;" as when they call that 
 aerial substance, which in the body of any living creature gives it life and 
 motion, " vital " and " animal spirits." But for those idols of the brain, 
 which represent bodies to us where they are not, as in a looking-glass, in a 
 dream, or to a distempered brain waking, {hey are, as the apostle saith 
 generally of all idols, nothing ; nothing at all, I say, there where they 
 seem to be ; and in the brain itself, nothing but tumult, proceeding eitlter 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF SPIRIT, ETC. i79 
 
 from the action of the objects, or from the disorderly agitation of the organs 
 of our sense. And men that are otherwise employed than to search into 
 their causes, know not of themselves what to call them ; and may therefore 
 easily be persuaded, by those whose knowledge they much reverence, some 
 to call them " bodies," and think them made of air compacted by a power 
 supernatural, because the sight judges them corporeal ; and some to call 
 them " spirits," because the sense of touch discerneth nothing in the place 
 where they appear, to resist their fingers : so that the proper signification of 
 " spirit " in common speech, is either a subtle, fluid, and invisible body, or 
 a ghost, or other idol or phantasm of the imagination. But for metaphori- 
 cal significations, there be many : for sometimes it is taken for disposition 
 or inclination of the mind ; as when for the disposition to control the 
 sayings of other men, we say "a spirit of contradiction ; " for a disposi- 
 tion to nncleanness, "an unclean spirit;" for perverseness, "a froward 
 spirit ;" for sullenness, "a dumb spirit;" and for inclination to godliness 
 and God's service, " the Spirit of God :" sometimes for any eminent ability 
 or extraordinsry passion, or disease of the mind, as when "great wisdom " 
 is called " the spirit of wisdom ;" and " madmen " are said to be " possessed 
 with a spirit." 
 
 Other significations of " spirit " I find nowhere any ; and where none of 
 these can satisfy the sense of that word in Scripture, the place falleth not 
 under human understanding ; and our faith therein consisteth not in our 
 opinion, but in our submission ; as in all places where God is said to be a 
 " Spirit," or whereby the " Spirit of God " is meant God himself. For 
 the nature of God is incomprehensible ; that is to say, we understand 
 nothing of "what He is," but only "that He is;" and therefore the 
 attribures we give Him are not to tell one another " what He is," nor to 
 signify our opinion of His nature, but our desire to honour Him with such 
 names as we conceive most honourable amongst ourselves. 
 
 Gen. i. 2 ; " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 
 Here if by the " Spirit of God " be meant God himself, then is " motion " 
 attributed to God, and consequently " place, "which are intelligible only of 
 bodies, and not of substances incorporeal ; and so the place is above our 
 understanding, that can conceive nothing moved that changes not place, 
 or that has not dimension ; and whatsoever has dimension is body. But 
 the meaning of those words is best imderstood by the like place (Gen. 
 viii. I), where when the earth was covered with waters, as in the beginning, 
 God intending to abate them, and again to discover the dry land, useth the 
 like words, ' ' I will bring my Spirit upon the earth, and the waters shall be 
 diminished," in which place, by " .Spirit " is understood a wind, that is an 
 air or " spirit moved," which might be called, as in the former place, the 
 " Spirit of God," because it was God's work. 
 
 Gen. xli. 38 : Pharaoh calleth the Wisdom of Joseph, the "Spirit of God." 
 For Joseph having advised him to look out a wise and discreet man, and to 
 set him over the land of Egypt, he saith thus, " Can we find such a man 
 as this is, in whom is the Spirit of God?" And Exod. xxviii. 3: "Thou 
 shalt speak," saiih God, " to all the wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the 
 spirit of wisdom, to make Aaron garments, to consecrate him ; " where 
 extraordinary understanding, though but in making garments, as being the 
 "gift '! of God, is called the "Spirit of God." The same is found again, 
 Exod. xxxi. 3, 4, S, 6 ; and xxxv. 31. And Isaiah xi. 2, 3, where the 
 prophet, speaking of the Messiah, saith, " The Spirit of the Lord shall abide 
 upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and 
 fortitude, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord." Where manifestly is 
 meant, not so many ghosts, but so many eminent graces that God would 
 give him. 
 
i8o OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 In the book of Judges, an extraordinary zeal and courage in the defence 
 of God's people, is called the " Spirit " of God ; as when it excited Othniel, 
 Gideon, Jephtha, and Samson to deliver them from servitude : Judges iii. 
 lO ; vi. 24 ; xi. 29 ; xiii. 25 ; xiv. 6, 19. And of Saul, upon the news of the 
 insolence of the Ammonites towards the men of Jabesh Gilead, it is said 
 (i Sam. xi. 6) that " the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and his anger," 
 (or, as it is in the Latin, " his fuiy") "was kindled greatly." Where it is not 
 piObable was meant a ghost, but an extraordinary "zeal" to punish the 
 cruelty of the Ammonites. In like manner by the "Spirit" of God, 
 that came upon Saul, when he was amongst the prophets that praised 
 God in songs and music (I Sam. xix. 23), is to be understood, not a 
 gho-t, but an unexpected and sudden "zeal" to join with them in their 
 devotion. 
 
 The false prophet Zedekiah saith to Micaiah (l Kings xxn. 24), " which 
 way went the Spirit of the Lord from me to speak to thee? " Which can- 
 not be understood of a ghost ; for Micaiah declared before the kings 
 of Israel and Judah the event of the battle, as from a "vision," and not as 
 from a " spirit " speaking in him. 
 
 In the same manner it appeareth in the books of the Prophets, that 
 though ihey spake by the " spirit " of God, that is to say, by a special 
 grace of prediction ; yet their knowledge of the future was not by a ghost 
 within them, but by some supernaturnal " dream " or " vision." 
 
 Gen. ii. 7, it is said, "God made man of the dust of the earth, and 
 breathed into his nostrils (spiraculum vita) the breath of life, and man was 
 made a living soul." There the "breath of life " inspired by God signifies 
 no more, but that God gave him life ; and (Job xxvii. 3), " as long as the 
 Spirit of God is in my nostrils," is no more than to say, "as long as I live." 
 So in Ezek. i. 20, "the spirit of life was in the wheels," is equivalent to, 
 " the wheels were alive." And (Ezek. ii. 2), "the Spirit entered into me, 
 and set me on my feet," -that is, " I recovered my vital strength ; " not that 
 any ghost or incorporeal substance entered into, and possessed his body. 
 
 In the xith chap, of Numbers, v. 17, "I will take," saith God, " of the 
 Spirit, which is upon thee, and will put it upon them, and they shall bear 
 the burthen of the people with thee ; " that is, upon the seventy elders : 
 whereupon two of the seventy are said to prophesy in the camp ; of whom 
 some complained, and Joshua desired Moses to forbid them ; which Moses 
 would not do. Whereby it appears, that Joshua knew not that they had re- 
 ceived authority so to do, and prophesied according to the mind of Moses, 
 that is to say, by a " spirit," or " authority " subordinate to his own. 
 
 In the like sense we read (Deut. xxxiv. 9), that "Joshua was full of the 
 spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands upon him : " that is, be- 
 cause he was " ordained " by Moses to prosecute the work he had himself 
 begun, namely, the bringing of God's people into the promised land, but 
 prevented by death, could not finish. 
 
 In the like sense it is said (Rom. viii. 9), "If any man have not the Spirit 
 of Christ, he is none of His ; " not meaning thereby the ' ' ghost of 
 Christ, but a "submission" to His doctrine. As also ( I John iv. 2), 
 " Hereby you shall know the Spirit of God ; every spirit that confesseth that 
 Jesus Christ is come in the fiesh, is of God ; " by which is meant the spirit 
 of unfeigned Christianity, or ' ' submission," to that main article of Christian 
 faith, that Jesus is the Christ ; which cannot be interpreted of a ghost. 
 
 Likewise these words (Luke iv. i), " And Jesus full of the Holy Ghost," 
 (that is, as it is expressed, Matt. iv. I, and Mark i. 12, " of the Holy 
 Spirit,") may be understood for " zeal " to do the work for which He was 
 sent by God the Father ; but to interpret it of a ghost, is to say that God 
 himself, for so our Saviour was, was filled with God ; which is very im- 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF SPIRIT, ETC. i8i 
 
 proper and insignificant. How we came to translate " spirits " by the wurd 
 "ghosts," which signifieth nothing, neither in heaven nor earth, but the 
 imaginary inhabitants of man's brain, I examine not : but this I say, the 
 word " spirit " in the text signifietli no such thing, but either properly 
 a real "substance," or metaphorically, some extraordinary "ability" 
 or " affection " of the mind , or of the body. 
 
 The' disciples of Christ, seeing Him walking upon the sea (Matt. xiv. 26, 
 and Mark vi. 49), supposed Him to be a "spirit," meaning thereby an 
 aerial "body," and not a phantasm ; for it is said ihey all saw Him ; which 
 cannot be understood of the delusions of the brain, (which are not common 
 to many at once, as visible bodies are ; but singular, because of the diBer- 
 ences of fances), but of bodies only. In like manner, where He was taken 
 for a "spirit," by the same apostles (Luke xxiv. 37): so also (Acts xii. 15), 
 when St. Peter was delivered out of prison, it would not be believed ; but when 
 the maid said he was at the door, they said it was his " angel ;" by which 
 must be meant a corporeal substance, or we must say, the disciples them- 
 selves did follow the common opinion of both Jews and Gentiles, that some 
 such apparitions were not imaginary, but real, and such as needed not the 
 fancy of man for their existence. These the Jews called " spirits," and 
 "angels," good or bad; as the Greeks call the same by the name of 
 "demons." And some such apparitions may be real and substantial ; that 
 is to say, subtle bodies, which God can form by the same power by which 
 He formed all things, and make use of, as of ministers and messengers, that is 
 to say, angels, to declare His will, and execute the same when He pleaseth, 
 in extraordinary and supernatural manner. But when He hath so formed 
 them, they are substances endued with dimensions, and take up room, and 
 can be moved from place to place, which is peculiar to bodies ; and there- 
 fore are not ghosts " incorporeal," that is to say, ghosts that are in " no 
 place ;" tliat is to say, that are "nowhere ;" that is to say, that seeming to 
 be "somewhat," are "nothing." But if corporeal be taken in the most 
 vulgar manner, for such substances as are perceptible by our external 
 senses ; then is substance incorporeal, a thing not imaginary, but real ; 
 namely, a thin substance invisible, but that hath the same dimensions that 
 are in grosser bodies. 
 
 By the name of "angel," is signified generally, a "messenger;" and 
 hiost often a " messenger of God ;" and by a messenger of God is signified, 
 anything that makes known His extraordinary presence ; that is to say, the 
 extraordinary manifestion of His power, especiallyby a dream or vision. 
 
 Concerning the creation of " angels," there is nothing delivered in the 
 Scriptures. That they are spirits, is often repeated : but by the name of 
 spirit, is signified both in Scripture and vulgarly, both amongst Jews and 
 Gentiles, sometimes thin bodies : as the air, the wind, the spirits vital and 
 animal of living creatures ; and sometimes the images that rise in the fancy 
 in dreams and visions ; which are not real substances, nor last any longer 
 than the dream or vision they appear in ; which apparitions, though no 
 real substances, but accidents of the brain ; yet when God raiseth them 
 supernaturally, to signify His will, they are not improperly termed God's 
 messengers, that is to say, His " angels." 
 
 And as the Gentiles did vulgarly conceive the imagery of the brain, for 
 things really subsistent without them, and not dependent on the fancy, and 
 out of them framed their opinions of " demons, " good and evil ; which 
 because they seemed to subsist really, they called "substances;" and, 
 because they could not feel them with their hands, "incorporeal:" so 
 also the Jews upon the same ground, without anything in the Old Testa- 
 ment that constrained them thereunto, had generally an opinion, except 
 the sect of the Sadducees, that those apparitions which it pleased God 
 
i82 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMOXIVEALTH. 
 
 sometimes to produce in the tancj of ines, for H13 otu semce, and there- 
 fore called them His "arigels," were sibstaaces, sot ^pendent oothe 
 fancy, but permanent creatnres of God ; wbereof these wiiidi :Iiep tiio^^ 
 were good to them, they esteemed d^ " angeU of God," and tbose tbey 
 (hongbt would bmt tliem, they called " erii asge]^" or esU flints. Such 
 as was the spirit of Python, and the spiiitx of wadwen, of hmatics, and 
 epileptics, for they esteemed st!ch as were troabkd witli such disuses, 
 "demoniacs." 
 
 But if we consider the places of the Old Testsment where angels are 
 mentioned, we shall find that in most of them, there can nothii^ else be 
 understood by the word "angel," bat some image raised, sopeinatiDally, 
 in the fancy to signify the presence of God in the execatiaa rf some super- 
 natural work ; and therefore in the rest, where their nature is not ex- 
 pressed, it may be understood in the same manner. 
 
 For we read (Gen. xvi.) that the same apparition is called, not i»ily an 
 " angel," but " God," where that which (rerse 7) is called the " angel " of 
 the Lord, in the tenth verse, saith to Agar, " I will mnltipiy thy seed 
 exceedingly ; " that is, speakedi in the person of God. Netdio' was this 
 apparition a fancy figured, but a voice. By which it b manifest that 
 ''angel" signifieth there nothing but "God" himself, titat caused Agar 
 supematurally to apprehend a voice 60m heaven ; or rather, nothing else 
 but a voice supernatural, testifying God's special presence there. Why 
 therefore may not the angels that appeared to Lot, and are called (Gen. 
 xix. 12) "men;" and to whom, though they were two. Lot speaketh 
 (verse 18) as but to one, and that one as God, (for the words are, "Lot said 
 tmto them. Oh, not so, my Lord,"} be understood of images of men, super- 
 naturally formed in the fancy, as well as before by angel was understood a 
 fancied voice ? When the angel called to Abraham out of heaven to stay 
 his hand (Gen. xxii. 11) ftom slaying Isaac, there was no apparition, but a 
 voice ; which nevertheless was called properly enough a messenger or 
 "angel" of God, because it declared God's wiD supematurally, and saves 
 the labour of supposing any permanent ghosts. The angels which Jacob 
 saw on the ladder of Heaven (Gen. xxviii. 12) were a vision of his sleep, 
 therefore only fancy and a dream ; yet being supernatural, and signs <rf 
 God's special presence^ those apparitions are not improperly called 
 " angels." The same is to be understood (Gen. xxxi. 1 1) where Jacob saith 
 thus, "The Angel of the Lord appeared to me in my sleep." For an 
 apparition made to a man in his sleep, is that which all men rail a dreaui, 
 whether such dream be natural or supernatural ; and that which there 
 Jacob called an "angel," was God himself, for the same angel saith (verse 
 13), " I am the God of Bethel." 
 
 Also (Exod. xiv. 19) the angel that went before the army of Israel to the 
 Red Sea, and then came behind it, is (verse 24) the Lord himself; and He 
 appeared, not in the form of a beautiful man, but in form (Exod. xiii. 21), 
 by day, of a " pillar of cloud," and, by night, in form of a " pillar of fire ;" 
 and yet this pillar was all the apparition and "angel" promised to Moses 
 (Exod. xxxiii. 2) for the army's guide: for this cloudy pillar (Exod. xxxiii. 9) 
 is said to have descended, and stood at the door of the Tabernacle, and to 
 have talked with Moses. 
 
 There you see motion and speech, which are commonly attributed to 
 angels, attributed to a cloud, because the cloud served as a sign of God's 
 presence ; and was no less an angel, than if it had had the form of a man, 
 or child of never so great beauty; or wings, as usually they are painted, 
 for the false instruction of common people. For it is not the shape ; but 
 their use that makes them angels. But their use is to be significations of 
 God's presence in supernatural operations; as when Moses (Exod, xxxiii, 14) 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF SPIRIT, ETC. 783 
 
 had desired God to go along with the camp, as He had done always before 
 the making of the golden calf, God did not answer, "I will go," nor "I 
 will send an angel in my stead ;" but thus, " My presence shall go, with 
 thee." 
 
 To mention all the places of the Old Testament where the name of angel 
 is found would be too long. Therefore to comprehend them all at once, 
 I say, there is no text in that part of the Old Testament, which the Church 
 of England holdeth for canonical, from which we can conclude there is or 
 hath been created, any permanent thing, understood by the name of 
 "spirit" or "angel," that hath not quantity ; and that may not be by the 
 understanding divided ; that is to say, considered by parts ; so as one part 
 may be in one place, and the next part in the next place to it ; and in sum, 
 which is not (taking body for that which is somewhat or somewhere) cor- 
 poreal ; but in every pjace, the sense will bear the interpretation of angel, 
 for messenger ; as John Baptist is called an angel, and Christ the Angel of 
 the Covenant ; and as, according to the same analogy, the dove and the 
 fiery tongues, in that they were signs of God's special presence, might also 
 be called angels. Though we find in Daniel two names of angels, Gabriel 
 and Michael ; yet it is clear out of the text itself (Dan. xii. i) that by 
 Michael is meant Christ, not as an angel, but as a prince : and that Gabriel, 
 as the like apparitions made to other holy men in their sleep, was nothing 
 but a supernatural phantasm, by which it seemed to Daniel, in his dream, 
 that two saints being in talk, one of them said to the other, "Gabriel, let 
 us make this man undei'stand liis vision :" for God needeth not to distin- 
 guish His celestial servants by names, which are useful only to the short 
 memories of mortals. Nor in the New Testament is there any place, out of 
 which it can be proved that angels, except when they are put for such men 
 as God hath made the messengers and ministers of his word or works, are 
 things permanent, and withal incorporeal. That they are permanent, may be 
 gathered from the words of our Saviour himself (Matt. xxv. 41), where He 
 saith, it shall be said to the wicked in the last day, "Go ye cursed into 
 everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:" which place is 
 manifest for the permanence of evil angels (unless we might think the name 
 of devil and his angels may be understood of the Church's adversaries and 
 their ministers) ; but then it is repugnant to their immateriality ; because 
 everlasting fire is no punishment to impatible substances, such as are all 
 things incorporeal. Angels therefore are not thence proved to be incor- 
 poreal. In like manner where St. Paul says (i Cor. vi. 3), "Know ye 
 not that we shall judge the angels ? " and (2 Pet. ii. 4), " For if God spared 
 not the angels that sinned, but cast them down into hell ; " and (Jude i. 6), 
 " And the angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own fiabitation, 
 He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment 
 of the last day : " though it prove the permanence of angdical nature, it 
 confirmeth .ilso their materiality. And (Matt. xxii. 30), " In the resurrec- 
 tion men do neither marry nor give in marriage, but "are as the angels of 
 God in heaven : " but in the resurrection men shall be permanent and not 
 incorporeal ; so therefore also are the angels. 
 
 There be divers other places out of which may be drawn the like con- 
 clusion. To men that understand the signification of these words, "sub- 
 stance" and "incorporeal;" as "incorporeal" is taken, not for subtle 
 body, but for "not body;" they imply a contradiction: insomuch as to 
 say, an angel or spirit is in that sense an incoi-poreal substance, is to say in 
 effect, there is no angel nor spirit at all. Considering therefore the sig- 
 nification of the word "angel" in the Old Testament, and the nature of 
 dreams and visions that happen to men by the ordinary way of nature, I 
 was inclined to tliis opinion, that angels were nothing but supernatural 
 
1 84 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 apparitions of the fancy, raised by the special and extraoidinary operation 
 of God, thereby to malce His presence and commandments known to man- 
 kind, and chiefly to His own people. But the many places of the New 
 Testament, and our Saviour's own words, and in such texts, wherein is no 
 suspicion of corruption of the Scripture, have extorted from my feeble 
 reason an acknowledgment and belief tliat there be also angels substantial 
 and permanent. But to believe they be in no place, that is to say, no- 
 where, tliat is to say, nothing, as they, though indirectly, say that will have 
 them incorporeal, cannot by Scripture be evinced. 
 
 On the signification of the word "spirit," dependeth that of the word 
 " inspiration ; " which must either be taken properly ; and then it is notliing 
 but me blowing into a man some thin and subtle air or wind, in such 
 manner as a man filleth a bladder with his breath ; or if spirits be not 
 corporeal, but have their existence only in the fancy, it is nothing but the 
 blowing in of a phantasm ; which is improper to say, and impossible ; for 
 phantasms are not, but only seem to be, somewhat. That word therefore 
 is used in the Scripture metaphorically only ; as (Gen. ii. 7) where it is said- 
 that.God " inspired" into man the breath of hfe, no more is meant than that 
 God gave unto him vital motion. For we are not to think that God made 
 first a living breath and then blew it into Adam after he was made, whether 
 that breath were real or seeming ; but only as it is (Acts xvii. 25), " that He 
 gave him life and breath ; " that is, made liim a living creature. And 
 where it is said (2 Tim. iii. 15), " All Scripture is given by inspiration from 
 God," speaking there of the Scripture of the Old Testament, it is an easy 
 metaphor to signify that God inclined the spirit or mind of those writers to 
 write that which should be useful, in teaching, reproving, correcting, and 
 instructing men in the way of righteous living. Bulj where St. Peter 
 (2 Pet. i. zi) saith, that "Prophecy came not in old time by the will <f 
 man, but the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
 Spirit," by the Holy Spirit is meant the voice of God in a dream or vision 
 supernatural, which is not " inspiration." Nor, when our Saviour breath- 
 ing on His disciples, said, " Receive the Holy Spirit," was that breath the 
 Spirit, but a sign of the spiritual graces He gave unto them. And though 
 it be said of many, and of our Saviour himself, that He was full of the Holy 
 Spirit ; yet that fulness is not to be understood for " infusion " of the sub- 
 stance of God, but for accumulation of His gifts, such as are the gift of 
 sanctity of life, of tongues, and the like, Vr^hether attained supernaturally or 
 by study and industry ; for in all cases they are the gifts of God. So like- 
 wise where God says (Joel ii. 28), " I will pour out my Spirit upon all 
 flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall 
 dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions," we are not to under- 
 stand it in the proper sense, as if His Spirit were like water, subject to 
 effiision or infusion ; but as if God had promised to give them prophetical 
 dreams and visions. For the proper use of the word " infused," in speaking 
 of the graces of God,' is an abuse of it ; for those graces are virtues, not bodies 
 to be carried hither and thither, and to be poured into men as into barrels. 
 
 In tlie same manner, to take " inspiration " in the proper sense, or to 
 say that good " spirits " entered into men to make them prophesy, or evil 
 " spirits " into those that became phrenetic, lunatic, or epileptic, is not to 
 take the word in the sense of the Scripture ; for the Spirit there is taken 
 for the power of God, working by causes to us unknown. As also (Acts 
 ii. 2) the wind, that is there said to fill the house wherein the apostles 
 were assembled on the day of Pentecost, is not to be understood for the 
 " Holy Spirit," which^s the Deity itself; but for an external sign of God's 
 special working on then- hearts, to effect in them the internal graces and 
 holy virtues He thought requisite for the performance of their apostleship. 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF KINGDOM OF GOD. 185 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 Of the Signification in Scripture of Kingdom of God, of Holy, Sacred, 
 and Scurament. 
 
 The "Kingdom of God," in the writings of divines, and specially in ser- 
 mons and treatises of devotion, is taken most commonly for eternal felicity, 
 after this life, in the highest heaven, which they also call the kingdom of 
 glory ; and sometimes Tor the earnest of that felicity, sanctification, which 
 they term the kingdom of grace ; but never for the monarchy, that is to 
 say, the sovereign power of God over any subjects acquired by their own 
 consent, which is the proper signification of kingdom. 
 
 To the contrary, I find the " kingdom of God " to signify, in most 
 places of Scripture, a "kingdom properly so named," constituted by tlie 
 votes of the people of Israel in peculiar manner ; wherein they chose God 
 for their kins; by covenant made with Him, upon God's promising them the 
 possession of the land of Canaan ; and but seldom metaphorically ; and 
 then it is taken for "dominion over sin ; " (and only in the New Testa- 
 ment ;) because such a dominion as that, every subject shall have in the 
 kingdom of God, and without prejudice to the sovereign. 
 
 From the very creation, God not only reigned over all men " naturally " 
 by His might ; but also had " peculiar " subjects, whom He commanded by 
 a voice, as one man speaketh to another. In which manner He " reigned " 
 over Adam, and gave him commandment to abstain from the tree of cog- 
 nizance of good and evil ; which when he obeyed not, but tasting thereof, 
 took upon him to be as God, judging between good and evil, not by his 
 Creator's commandment, but by his own sense, his punishment was a priva- 
 tion of the estate of eternal life, wherein God had at first created him ; and 
 afterwards God punished his posterity for their vices, all but eight persons, 
 with an universal deluge ; and in these eight did consist the then " king- 
 dom of God." 
 
 After this it pleased God to speak to Abraham, and (Gen. xvii. 7, 8) to 
 make a covenant with him in these words, " I will establish my covenant 
 between me, and thee, and thy seed after thee in tlieir generations, for an 
 everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee ; and 
 I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art 
 a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession." In this 
 covenant "Abraham promiseth for himself and his posterity, to obey as 
 God, the Lord that spake to him ; and God on His part promiseth to 
 Abraham the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession." And for a 
 memorial, and a token of this covenant, He ordaineth (Gen. xvii. 11) the 
 " sacrament of circumcision." This is it which is called the " old covenant " 
 or " testament ; " and containeth a contract between God and Abraham ; 
 by which Abraham obhgeth himself, and his posterity, in a peculiar manner 
 to be subject to God's positive law ; for to the law moral he was obliged 
 before, as by an oath of allegiance. And though the name of " King " be 
 not yet given to God, nor of " kingdom" to Abraham and his seed : yet 
 the thing is the same ; namely, an institution by pact, of God's peculiar 
 sovereignty over the seed of Abraham ; which in the renewing of the same 
 covenant by Moses, at Mount Sinai, is expressly called a peculiar " king- 
 dom of God " over the Jews : and it is of Abraham, not of Moses, St. Paul 
 saith (Rom. iv. 11) that he is the "father of the faithful; "that is, of those 
 that are loyal, and do not violate their allegiance sworn to God, then by 
 circumcision, and afterwards in the " new covenant " by baptism. 
 
i86 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Tltis covenant at the foot of Mount Sinai, was renewed by Moses (Exod, 
 xix. 5), where the Lord commandeth Moses to speak to the people in this 
 manner : " If you will obey my voice indeedj and keep my covenant, then 
 ye shall be a peculiar people to me, for all the earth is mine ; and ye shall 
 be" unto me a sacerdotal kingdom, and an holy nation." For a "peculiar 
 people," the vulgar Latin hath peculium de cuncHs populis: the English 
 translation, made in the banning of the reign of King James, hath a 
 " peciiliar treasure unto me above all nations ;" and the Geneva French, 
 "the most precious jewel of all nations." But the truest translation is the 
 first, because it is confirmed by St. Paul himself (Tit. ii. 14), where he saith, 
 alluding to that place, that our blessed Savioor " gave himself for us, that 
 He might purify us to himself a pecvdiar," that is, an extraordinary, 
 " people ;" for the word is in the Greek TrepioiVios, which is opposed 
 commonly to the word iirioiaios ; and as this signifieth "ordinary," 
 " quotidian," or, as in the Lord's Prayer, " of daily use ;" so the other sig- 
 nifieth that which is "overplus," and "stored up," and "enjoyed in a 
 special manner ;" which the Latins c&Mpeculium : and this meanmg of the 
 place is confirmed by the reason God rendereth of it, which foUoweth imme- 
 diately, in that He addetb, "For all the earth is mine," as if He should say, 
 " All the nations of the world are mine ; but it is not so that you are mine, 
 but in a special manner ; for they are all mine, by reason of my power ; 
 but you shall be mine, by your own consent and covenant ; " which is an 
 addition to His ordinary title, to all nations. 
 
 The same is again confii-med in express words in the same text, "Ye 
 shall be to me a sacerdotal kingdom, and an holy nation." The vulgar 
 Latin hath it, regnum sacerdotuk, to which agreeth the translation of that 
 place (i Pet. ii. 9), Sacerdotium regale, "a regal priesthood ; " as also the 
 iiistitulion itself, by which no man might enter into the sanctum sanc- 
 torum, that is to say, no man might inquire God's will immediately of God 
 himself, but only the high priest. The English translation before mentioned, 
 following that of Geneva, has "akingdomof priests;" which is either meant 
 of the succession of one high priest after another, or else it accordeth not 
 with St. Peter, nor with the exercise of the high priesthood ; for there was 
 never any but the high priest only, that was to inform the people of God's 
 will ; nor any convocation of priests ever allowed to enter into the sanctum 
 sanctorum. 
 
 Again, the title of a "holy nation" confirms the same; for "holy" 
 signifies that which is God's by special, not by general right. All the earth, 
 as is said in the text, is God's ; but a:ll the earth is not called "holy," but 
 that only which is set apart for His especial service, as was the nation of the 
 Jews. It is therefore manifest enough by this one place, that by the 
 "kingdom of God," is properly meant a commonwealth, instituted by the 
 consent of those which were to be subject thereto, for their civil government, 
 and the regulating of their behaviour, not only towards God their king, but 
 also towards one another in point of justide, and toward other nations both 
 in peace and war ; which properly was a kingdom wherein God was king, 
 and the high priest was to be, after the death of Moses, his sole viceroy or 
 lieutenant. ' 
 
 But there be many othes places that clearly prove' the same. As ' first 
 (l Sam. vrii. 7), when the Elders of Israel, giieved with the corruption 
 of the sons of Samuel, demanded 'a king, Samuel displ&sed therewith, 
 prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord answering said unto him, " Hearken 
 uiito the voice of the people, for they have not rejected thee, but they have 
 rejected me, that I should not reign over them." Out of which it is evident that 
 God himself was then their king ; and Samuel did not command the people, 
 but only delivered to them that which God from time to time appointed mth. 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF KINGDOM OF GOD. 1B7 
 
 Again (i Sam. xii. 12), where Samuel sailh to the people, " When ye 
 saw that Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, came against you, ye 
 said unto me. Nay, but a king shall reign over us ; when the Lord your 
 God was your king." It is manifest that God was their king, and governed 
 the civil state of their commonwealth. 
 
 And after the Israelites had rejected God, the prophets did foretell His 
 restitution ; as (Isaiah xxiv. 23), " Then the moon shall be confounded, 
 and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion 
 and in Jerusalem ;" where He speaketh expressly of his reign in Zion and 
 Jerusalem ; that is, on earth. And (Micali iv. 7), " And the Lord shall 
 reign over them in Mount Zion ;" this Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, upon 
 the earth. And (Ezek. xx. 33), " As I live, saith the Lord God, surely 
 with a mighty hzxid, and a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, I 
 will rule over you ; " and (verse 37), " I will cause you to pass under the 
 rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant ; " that is, I will 
 reign over you, and make you to stand to that covenant which you made 
 with me by Moses, and brake in your rebellioa against me in the days of 
 Samuel, and in your election of another king. 
 
 And in the New Testament the angel Gabriel saith of our Saviour 
 (Luke i. 32, 33), " He shall be great, and be called the Son of the Most 
 High, and the Lord shall give unto Him the throne of His father David ; 
 and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of His kingdom there 
 shall be no end." This is also a kingdom upon earth ; for the claim whereof, 
 as an enemy to Csesar, He was put to death ; the title of His cross was, 
 ' ' Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews ; " He was crowned in scorn with 1 a 
 crown of thorns ; and for the prodaiming of Him it is said of the disciples 
 (Acts xvii. 7), " That they did all of them contrary to the decrees of Csesar, 
 saying there was another king, one Jesus." The kingdom therefore of God 
 is a real, not a metaphorical kingdom ; and so taken, not only in the Old 
 Testament but in the New ; when we say, " For thine is the kingdom, the 
 power, and glory," it is to be understood of God's kingdom, by force of 
 our covenant, not by the right of God's power ; for such a kingdom God 
 always hath ; so that it were superfluous to say in our prayer, " Thy king- 
 dom come," unless it be meant of the restoration of that kingdom of God 
 by Christ, which by revolt of the Israelites had been interrupted in tlie 
 election of Saul. Nor had it been proper to say, "The kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand;" or to pray, "Thy kingdom come," if it had still 
 continued. 
 
 There be so many other places that confirm this interpretation, that it 
 were a wonder there is no greater notice taken of it, but that it gives too 
 much light to Christian kings to see tlieir right of ecclesiastical government. 
 This they have observed, that instead of a " sacerdotal kingdom," trans- 
 late, "a kingdom of priests;" for they may as well translate a "royal 
 priesthood," as it is in St. Peter, into a "priesthood of kings.'' And 
 whereas, for a "peculiar people," they put a "precious jewel," or 
 "treasure," a man might as well call the special regiment, or company of 
 a general, the general's precious jewel, or his treasure. 
 
 In short, the kingdom of God is a civil kingdom ; which cons isted, first, 
 in the obligation of the people of Israel to those laws, which M oses should 
 bring unto them from Mount Sinai ; and which afterwards the high priest 
 for the time being, should deliver to them from before the cherubims in the 
 sanctum sanctorum ; and which kingdom having been cast off in the election 
 of Saul, the prophets foretold, should be restored by Christ ; and the 
 restoration whereof we daily pray for, when we say in the Lord's Prayer, 
 "Thy kingdom come ;" and the right whereof we acknowledge, when we 
 add, "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and glory, for ever and ever, 
 
i88 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTIt. 
 
 Amen ;" and the proclaiming whereof, was the preaching of the apostles ; 
 and to which men are prepared, by the teachers of the Gospel ; to embrace 
 which Gospel, that is to say, to promise obedience to God's government, is 
 tobein the "kingdom of grace," because God hath gratis given to such 
 tlie power to be the subjects, tliat is children, of God hereafter, when Christ 
 shall come in majesty lo judge the world, and actually to govern His own 
 people, which is called "the kingdom of glory." If the kingdom of God, 
 called also the kingdom of (heaven, from the gloriousness and admirable 
 height of that throne, were not a kingdom which God by His lieutenanls, 
 or vicars, who deliver His commandments to the people, did exercise on 
 earth ; there would not have been so much contention and war about who 
 it is by whom God speaketh to us ; neither would many priests have 
 troubled themselves with spiritual jurisdiction, nor any king have denied it 
 
 them. • > , 
 
 Out of this literal interpretation of the "kingdom of God,' anseth also 
 the true interpretation of the word "holy." For it is a word, which in 
 God's kingdom answereth to that, which men in their kingdoms use to call 
 "public," or the "king's." 
 
 Tlie king of any country is the " public " person, or representative of all 
 his own subjects. And God the king of Israel was the " Holy One" of 
 Israel. The nation which is subject to one earthly sovereign, is the nation 
 of that sovereign, that is, of the public person. So the Jews, who were 
 God's nation, were called (Exod. xix. 6) "a holy nation." _ For by "holy," 
 is always understood either God himself, or that which is God's, in pro- 
 priety ; as by public is always meant, either the person of the common- 
 wealth itself, or something that is so the commonwealth's, as no private 
 person can claim any propriety therein. 
 
 Therefore the Sabbath, God's day, is a " holy day ;" the temple, God's 
 house, "a holy house ;" sacrifices, tithes, and offerings, God's tribute, 
 "holy duties;" priests, prophets, and anointed kings, under Christ, God's 
 ministers, " holy men ;" the celestial ministering spirits, God's messengers, 
 " holy angels ;" and the like : and wheresoever the word "holy " is taken 
 properly, there is still something signified of propriety, gotten by consent. 
 In saying, " Hallowed be thy name," we do but pray to God for grace to 
 keep the first commandment, of "having no other gods but Him." Man- 
 kind is God's nation in propriety : but the Jews only were a " holy nation." 
 Why, but because they became His propriety by covenant ? 
 
 And the word " profane " is usually taken in the Scripture for the same 
 with "common;" and consequently their contraries, "holy" and "proper," 
 in the kingdom of God, must be the same also. But figuratively, those 
 men also are called "holy," that led such godly lives, as if they had 
 forsaken all wordly designs, and wholly devoted and given themselves to 
 God. In the proper sense, that which is made " holy " by God 's appro- 
 priating or separating it to His own use, is said to be "sanctified" by God, 
 as the seventh day in the fourth commandment ; and as the elect in the 
 New Testament were said to be " sanctified " when they were endued with 
 the spirit of godliness. And that which is made " holy " by the dedication 
 of men, and given to God, so as to be used only in His public service, is 
 called also " sacred," and said to be consecrated, as temples, and other 
 -houses of public prayer, and their utensils, priests, and ministers, victims, 
 offerings, and the external matter of sacraments. 
 
 Of "holiness" there be degrees: for of those things that are set apart 
 for the service of God, there may be some set apart again for a nearer and 
 more especial service. The whole nation of the Israelites were a people 
 holy to God ; yet the tribe of Levi was amongst the Israelites a holy tribe ; 
 and amongst ilie I.cviles, the prie'ts were yet more holy; and amongst the 
 
THE WORD OF GOD, ETC 189 
 
 priests, the high priest was the most holy. So the land of Judaea was the 
 Holy Land ; but the holy city wherein God was to be ^^•orshipped, was 
 more holy ; and again the Temple more holy than the city, and the 
 sanctum sanctorum more holy than the rest of the Temple. 
 
 A "sacrament," is a separation of some visible tiling from common use ; 
 and a consecration of it to God's service, for a sign either of our admission 
 into the kingdom of God, to be of the number of His peculiar people, or for 
 a commemoration of the same. In the Old Testament, the sign of 
 admission was " circumcision ; " in the New Testament, " baptism." The 
 commemoration of it in the Old Testament was the " eating," at a certain 
 time which was anniversary of the " Paschal Lamb ;" by which they were 
 put in mind of the night wherein they were delivered out of their bondage 
 in Egypt; and in the New Testament, the celebrating of the " Lord's 
 Supper ; " by which we are put in mind of our deliverance from the 
 bondage of sin, by our blessed Saviour's death upon the cross. The sacra- 
 ments of " admission," are but once to be used, because there needs but 
 one " admission ;" but because we have need of being often put in mind of 
 our deliverance, and of our allegiance, the sacraments of "commemoration" 
 have need to be reiterated. And these are the principal • sacraments, and 
 as it were the solemn oaths we make of our allegiance. There be also 
 other consecrations, that may be called .sacraments, as the word implieth 
 only consecration to God's service ; but as it implies an oath, or promise of 
 allegiance to God, there were no other in the Old Testament, but " circum- 
 cision," and the " passover ;" nor are there any other in the New Testament, 
 but "baptism" and the "Lord's Supper." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVL 
 
 0/ the Word of God, and of Prophets. 
 
 When there is mention of the " word of God,'' or of " man," it doth not 
 signify a part of speech, such as grammarians call a noun or a verb, or any 
 simple voice, without a contexture with other words to make it significative ; 
 but a perfect speech or discourse, whereby the speaker "aflirmeth," 
 "denieth," " commandeth, " "promiseth," " threateneth," "wisheth," or 
 "inteiTOgateth." In which sense it is not vocabulum, that signifies a 
 "word;" but sermo (in Greek \br/oi\ that is, some "speech," "dis- 
 course," or "saying." 
 
 Again, if we saythe " word of God," or of "man," it may be understood 
 sometimes of the speaker ; as the words that God hath spoken, or that a 
 man hath spoken ; in which sense, when we say the Gospel of St. Matthew, 
 we uuderstand St. Matthew to be , the writer of it, and sometimes of 
 the subject ; in which sense when we read in the Bible, " the words of the 
 days of the kings of Israel, or Judah," it is meant that the acts that were 
 done in those days were the subject of those words ; and in the Greek which, 
 in the Scripture, retaineth many Hebraisms, by the word of God is often- 
 times meant, not that which is spoken by God, but concerning God, and 
 His government ; that is to say, the doctrine of religion : insomuch as it is 
 all one, to say XAyos Oeoi;, and theologia ; which is, that doctrine which 
 we usually call "divinity," as is manifest by the places following (Acts 
 xiii. 46), " Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, it was necessary 
 that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you 
 put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting li'e, lo, we 
 
1 90 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 turn to the Gentiles." That which is here called the word of God, was the 
 doctrine of Christian religion ; as it appears evidently by that which goes 
 before. And (Acts v. 20) where it is said to the apostles by an angel, " Go 
 stand and speak in the Temple, all the words of this life ; " by the words of 
 this life, is meant the, doctrine of the Gospel ; as is evident by what they did 
 in the Temple, and'' is expressed in the last verse of the same chapter, 
 "Daily in the Temple, and in every house they ceased not to teach 
 and preach Christ Jesus ;" in which place it is manifest that Jesus Christ v/as 
 the subject of this " word of life ;" or, which is all one, the subject of the 
 "words of this life eternal," that our Saviour offered them. So (Acts xv. 7) 
 the word of God is called " the word of the Gospel," because it containeth 
 the doctrine of the kingdom of Christ ; and the same word (Rom. x. 8, 9) 
 is called "the word of faith ; " that is, as is there expressed, the doctrine of 
 Christ come, and raised from the dead. Also (Matt. xiii. 19), " When any 
 one heareth the word of the kingdom," that is, the doctrine of the kingdom 
 taught by Christ. Again, the same word is said (Actsxii. 24) "to grow and 
 to be multiplied ; " which is to understand of the evangelicaldoctrine is easy, 
 but of the voice or speech of God, hard and strange. In the same sense 
 (i Tim. iv. l) the "doctrine of devils" signifieth not the wprds of any 
 devil, but the doctrine of heathen men concerning " demons," and those 
 phantasms which they worshipped as gods. 
 
 Considering these two significations of the "word of God," as it is 
 taken in Scripture, it is manifest in this latter sense, where it is taken 
 for the doctrine of Christian religion, that the whole Scripture is the 
 word of God : but in the former sense, not so. For example, though 
 these words, "I am the Lord thy God," &c., to the end of the Ten 
 Commandments, were spoken by God to Moses ; yet the preface, " God 
 spake these words and said," is to be understood for the words of him 
 that .wrote the holy history. The " word of God," as it is taken for 
 that which He hath spoken, is understood sometimes " properly," some- 
 times '•metaphorically." "Properly," as the words He hath spoken to 
 His prophets : " metaphorically," for His wisdom, power, and eternal 
 decree, in making the world ; in which sense, those fiats, " Let there be 
 light," "Let there be a firmament," " Let us make man," &c.'(Gen. i.), are 
 the word of God. And in the same sense it is said (John i. 3), " All things 
 were made by it, and without it was nothing made that was made : " and 
 (Heb. i. 3), " He upholdeth all things by the word of His power ; " that is, 
 by the power of His word ; that is, by His power : and (Heb. xi. 3), " The 
 worlds were framed by the word of God ;" and many other places to the 
 same sense : as also amongst the Latins, the name of "fate," which signi- 
 fieth properly " the word spoken," is taken in the same sense. 
 
 Secondly, for the effect of His word ; that is to .'!ay, for the thing itself, 
 which ,by His word is affirmed, commanded, threatened, or promised ; as 
 (Psalm cv. 19) where Joseph is said to have been kept in prison "till his 
 word was come ; " that is, till that was come to pass which he had foretold 
 to Pharaoh's butler (Gen. xl. 13) concerning his being restored to his 
 office : for there, ' ' by his word was come," is meant, the thing itself was 
 come to pass. So also (l Kings xviii. 36) Elijah saith to God, " I have 
 done all these thy words," instead of, " I have done all these: things at thy 
 word," or commandment ; and (Jer. xvii. 15), " Where is the word of the 
 Lord " is'put for "Where is the evil he threatened." And (Ezek. xii. 28), 
 " There shall none of my words be prolonged any more :" by " words" are 
 understood those ' ' things " which God promised to His people. And in 
 tlie New Testament (Matt. xxii. 35), " Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
 tui my words shall not pass away ;" that is, there is nothing that I have 
 promised or foretold that shall not come to pass. And in this sense it is 
 
THE WORD OF GOD, ETC. igr 
 
 that St. John the Evangelist, and I think St. John only, calleth our 
 Saviour himself as in the flesh " the word of God," as (John i. 14) " the 
 word was made flesh ;" that is to saj', the word or promise that Christ 
 should come into the world; "whom the beginning was with God;" 
 that is to say, it was in the purpose of God the Father to send God the Son 
 into the world to enlighten men in the way of eternal life ; but it was 
 not till then put in execution and actually incarnate. So that our 
 Saviour is there called the " word," not because He was the promise, but 
 the thing promised. They that taking occasion from this place do com- 
 monly call Him the verb of God, do but render the text more obscure. 
 They might as well term Him the noun of God: for as by "noun," so 
 also by " verb," men understand nothing but a part of speech, a voice, a 
 sound, that neither afifirms, nor denies, nor commands, nor promiseth, nor 
 is any snbstance corporeal or spiritual ; and therefore it cannot be said to 
 be either God or man ; whereas our Saviour is both. And this " word," 
 which St. John in his gospel saith was with God, is (in his first Epistle, 
 verse i) called the "word of life;" and (verse 2) " the eternal life, which 
 was with the Father." So that He can be in no other sense called the 
 " word " than in that wherein He is called eternal life ; that is, " He that 
 hath procured us eternal life" by His coming in the "flesh. So also 
 (Apocalypse xix. 13) the apostle, speaking of Christ clothed in a garment 
 dipped in blood, saith. His name is " the word of God ; " which is to be 
 understood as if He had said His name had been " He that was come, 
 according to the purpose, of God from the beginning, and according to His 
 word and promises delivered by the prophets." So that there is nothing 
 here of the incarnation of a word, but of the incarnation of God the Son, 
 therefore called "the word," because His incarnation wa^ the performance 
 of the promise ; in like manner as the Holy Ghost is called (Acts i. 4 ; 
 Luke xxiv. 49) " the promise." 
 
 There are also places of the Scripture, where, by the " word of God," is 
 signified such words as are consonant to reason and equity, though spoken 
 sometimes neither by prophet, nor by a holy man. For Pharaoh-Necho was 
 an idolater ; yet his words to the good king Josiah, in which he advised 
 him by messengers, not to oppose him in his march against Charchemish, 
 are said to have proceeded from the mouth of God ; and Josiah, not heark- 
 ening to them, was slain in the battle ; as is to be read (2 Chron. xxxv. zY, 
 22, 23). It is true, that as the same history is related in the first book of 
 Esdras, not Pharaoh, but Jeremiah, spake these words to Josiah, from the 
 mouth of the Lord. But we are to give credit to the canonical Scripture, 
 whatsoever be written in the Apocrypha. 
 
 The "word of God," is then also to be taken for the dictates of reason 
 and equity, when the same is said in the Scriptures to be written in man's 
 heart ; as Psalm xxxvii. 31 ; Jer. xxxi. 33 ; Deut. xxx. 11, 14, and many 
 other like places. 
 
 The name of "prophet" signifieth in Scripture, sometimes "prolo- 
 cutor ;" that is, he that speaketh from God to man, or from man to God : 
 and sometimes " predictor," or a foreteller of things to come : and sometimes 
 one that speaketh incoherently, as men that are distracted. It is most 
 frequently used in the sense of speaking from God to the people. So Moses, 
 Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others were "prophets." And in 
 this sense the high priest was a "prophet," for he only went into the 
 sanctum sanctorum to inquire of God ; and was to declare His answer to 
 the people. And therefore when Caiaphas said it was expedient that one 
 man should die for the people, St. John saith (chapter xi. 51) that "He 
 spake not this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied 
 that one man should die for the nation." Also they that in Chnstian con- 
 
193 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 giegations taught the people (i Cor. xiv. 3), are said to prophesy. In the like 
 sense it is that God saith to Moses (Exod. iv. 16) concerning Aaron, "He 
 shall be thy spokesman to the people ; ar.d he shall be to thee a mouth, 
 and thou shall be to him instead of God ;" that which here is "spokes- 
 man," is (Exod. vii. i) interpreted prophet ; " See," .«aith God, " I have 
 made thee a god 10 Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet." 
 In the sense of speaking from man to God, Abraham is called a prophet 
 (Gen. XX. 7), where God in a dream speaketh to Abimelech in this manner, 
 " Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and shall pray 
 for thee :" whereby may be also gathered that the name of prophet may 
 be given, not unproperly, to them that in Christian churches have a call- 
 ing to say public prayers for the congregation. In the same sense, the 
 prophets that came down from the high place, or hill of God, witli a 
 psaltery and a labret, and a pipe, and a harp (l Sam. x. 5, 6, and 10), Saul 
 amongst them, are said to prophesy, in that they praised God in that 
 manner publicly. In the like sense is Miriam (Exod. xv. 20) called a 
 prophetess. So is it also to be taken (I Cor. xi. 4, 5), where St. Paul saith, 
 " Every man that prayeth or prophesieth with his head covered, &c., and 
 every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered ;" for 
 prophesy in that' place signifieth no more but praising God in psalms and 
 holy songs ; which women might do in the church, though it were not law- 
 .ful for them to speak to the congregation. And in this signification it is 
 that the poets of the heathen, that composed hymns and other sorts of 
 poems in the honour of their gods, were called vates, prophets ; as is well 
 enough known by all that are versed in the books of the Gentiles, and as is 
 evident (Tit. i. 12), where S;. Paul saith of the Cretians, that a prophet of 
 their own said they were liars ; not that St. Paul held their poets for 
 prophets, but acknowledgeth that the word prophet was commonly used 10 
 signify them that celebrated the honour of God in verse. 
 
 When by prophesy is meant prediction, or foretelling of future contin- 
 gence ; not only they were prophets, who were God's spokesmen, and 
 foretold those things to others which God had foretold to them ; but also 
 all those impostors that pretend, by help of familiar spirits, or by super- 
 stitious divination of events past, from false causes to foretell the like events 
 in time to come ; of which, as I have declared already in the twelfth 
 chapter of this discourse, there be many kinds, who gain in the opinion of 
 the common sort of men a greater reputation of prophesy, by one casual 
 event that may be but wrested to their purpose, that can be lost again by 
 never so many failings. Prophesy is not an art, nor, when it is taken for 
 prediction, a constant vocation ; but an extraordinary and temporary em- 
 ployment from God, most often of good men, but sometimes also of the 
 wicked. The woman of Endor, who is saiii to have had a familiar spirit, 
 and thereby to have raised a phantasm of Samuel, and foretold Saul his 
 death, was not therefore a prophetess, for neither had she any science, 
 whereby she could raise such a phantasm, nor does it appear that God com- 
 manded the raising of it ; but only guided that imposture to be a means of 
 Saul's terror and discouragement, and by consequent, of the discomfiture by 
 which he fell. And for incoherent speech it was amongst the Gentiles 
 taken for one sort of prophecy, because the prophets of their oracles, 
 intoxicated with a spirit or vapour from the cave of the Pythian oracle at 
 Delphi, were for the time really mad, and spake like madmen ; of whose 
 loose words a sense might be made to fit any event, in such sort, as all 
 bodies are said to be made of materia prima. In Scripture I find it also 
 BO taken (l Sam. xviii. 10) in these words, " And the evil spirit came upon 
 Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house." 
 
 And although there be so many significations in Scripture of the word 
 
TH^ WORD OF COD, ETC. ' 193 
 
 " prophet ; " yet is that the most frequent, in which it is taken for him, to 
 whom God spealceth immediately that which the prophet is to say from 
 Ilim, to some other man, or to the people. And hereupon a question may 
 be asked, in what manner God speaketh to such a prophet. Can it, may 
 some say, be properly said that God hath voice and language, when it can. 
 not be properly said He hath a tongue or other organs as a man ? The 
 prophet David argueth thus (Psalm xciv. 9), " Shall lie that made the eye, 
 not see ? or He that made the ear, not hear ? " But this may be spoken, 
 not as usually, to signify God's nature, but to signify our intention to 
 honour Him. For to "see "and "hear," are honourable attributes, and 
 may be given to God to declare, as far as our capacity can conceive, His 
 almighty power. But if it were to be taken in the strict and proper sense, 
 one might argue from His making of all other parts of man's body, thit He had 
 also the same use of them which we have ; which would be many of them so 
 uncomely as it would be the greatest contumely in the world to ascribe them 
 to Him, Therefore we are to interpret God's speaking to men immediately, 
 for that way, whatsoever it be, by which God makes them understand His 
 will. And the ways whereby He doth this are many, and to be sought only 
 in the Holy Scripture ; where though many times it be said that God spake 
 to this and that person, without declaring in what manner ; yet there be 
 again many places that deliver also the signs by which they were to acknow- 
 ledge His presence and commandment; and by these may be understood 
 how He spake to many of the rest. 
 
 In what manner God spake to Adam, and Eve, and Cain, and Noah, is 
 not expressed : nor how He spake to Abraham, till such time as he came 
 out of his own country to Sichem, in the land of Canaan ; and then (Gen. 
 xii. 7) God is said to have " appeared " to him. So there is one way 
 whereby God made His presence manifest ; that is, by an " apparition" or 
 "vision." And again (Gen. xv. i), "The word of the Lord came to 
 Abraham, in a vision," that is to say, somewhat as a sign of God's presence, 
 appeared as God's messenger to speak to him. Again, the Lord appeared 
 to Abraham (Gen. xviii. i) by an apparition of three angels, and to 
 Abimelech (Gen. xx. 3) in a dream ; to Lot (Gen. xix. l) by an apparition 
 of two angels ; and to Agar (Gen. xxi. ly) by the apparition of one angel ; 
 and to Abraham again (Gen. xxii. 11) by the apparition of a voice from 
 heaven ; and (Gen. xxvi. 24) to Isaac in the night, that is, in his sleep, or 
 by dream ; and to Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 12) in a dream, that is to say, as are 
 the words of the text, "Jacob dreamed that he saw a ladder," &c. ; and 
 (Gen. xxxii. l) in a vision of angels; and to Moses (Exod. iii. 2) in the 
 apparition of a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And after the 
 time of Moses, where the manner how God spake immediately to man in 
 the Old Testament is expressed, He spake always by a vision, or by a dream ; 
 as to Gideon, Samuel, Eliah, Elisha, Isaiah, Erekiel, and the rest of the 
 prophets ; and often in the New Testament, as to Joseph, to St. Peter, to 
 St. Paul, and to St. John the Evangelist in the Apocalpyse. 
 
 Only to Moses He spake in a more extraordinary manner in Mount Sinai, 
 and in the Tabernacle ; and to the high priest in the Tabernacle, and in 
 the sanctum sanctorum of the Temple. But Moses, and after him the 
 high priests, were prophets of a more eminent place and degree in God's 
 favour ; and God himself in express words declareth, that to other prophets 
 He spake in dreams and visions, but to His servant Moses, in such a manner 
 as a man speaketh to his friend. The words are these (Numb. xii. 6, 7, 8), 
 " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to 
 him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses 
 is not so, who is faithful in all my house ; with him I will speak mouth to 
 mouth, even apparently, not in dark speeches ; and the similitude of the 
 
 G 
 
194 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Lord shall he behold." And (Exod. xxxiii. ii), "The Lord spake to 
 Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend." And yet this speaking 
 of God to Moses, was by mediation of an angel, or angels, as appears 
 expressly. Acts vii. 35 and 53, and Gal. iii. 19; and was therefore avision, 
 though a more clear vision than was given to other prophets. And 
 conformable hereunto, where God saith (Deut. xiii. i), "If there arise 
 amongst you a prophet, or dreamer of dreams," the latter word is but the 
 interpretation of the former. And (Joel ii. 28), " Your sons and your 
 daughters shall prophesy ; your old men shall dream dreams, . and your 
 young men shall see visions ; " where again the word " prophesy " is 
 expounded by "dream " and "vision." And in the same manner it was 
 that God spake to Solomon, promising him wisdom, riches, and honour ; 
 for the text saith (l Kings iii. 15), "And Solomon awoke, and behold it 
 was a dream ; " so that generally the prophets extraordinary in the Old 
 Testament took notice of the word of God no otherwise than from their 
 dreams or visions ; that is to say, from the imaginations which they had 
 in their sleep, or in an extasy : which imaginations in every true prophet 
 were supernatural ; but in false prophets were either natural or feigned. 
 
 The same prophets were nevertheless said to speak by the spirit ; as 
 (Zech. vii. 12) ; where the prophet speaking of the Jews, saith, " They 
 made their hearts hard as adamant, lest they should hear the law, and the 
 words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former 
 prophets." By which it is manifest, that speaking by the "spirit," or 
 "inspiration," was not a particular manner of God's speaking, different 
 from vision, when they that were said to speak by the Spirit were extra- 
 ordinary prophets, such as for every new message were to have a peculiar 
 commission, or which is all one, a new dream or vision. 
 
 Of prophets, that were so by a perpetual calling in the Old Testament, 
 some were " supreme," and some " subordinate : " supreme were first 
 Moses ; and after him the high priests, every one for his time, as long as 
 the priesthood was royal ; and after the people of the Jews had rejected 
 God, that He should no more reign over them, those kings which submitted 
 themselves to God's government, were also His chief prophets, and the high 
 priest's office became ministerial. And when God was to be consulted, they 
 put on the holy vestments, and inquired of the Lord as the king com- 
 manded them, and were deprived of their office when the king thought fit. 
 For king Saul (i Sam. xiii. 9) commanded the burnt-offering to be brought, 
 and (l Sam. xiv. 18) he commands the priests to bring the ark near him ; 
 and (verse 19) again to let it alone, because he saw an advantage upon 
 his enemies. And in the same chapter (verse 37) Saul asketh counsel of God. 
 In like., manner king David, after his being anointed, though before he had 
 possession of the kingdom, is said to "inquire of the Lord" (l Sam. 
 xxiii. 2) whether he should fight against the Philistines at Keilah : and 
 (verse 9) David commandeth the priest to bring him the ephod, to inquire 
 whether he should stay in Keilah or not. And king Solomon (i Kings ii. 27) 
 took the priesthood from Abiathar and gave it (verse 35) to Zadok. There- 
 fore Moses, and the high priests, and the pious kings, who inquired of God 
 on all extraordinary occasions how they were to carry themselves, or what 
 event they were to have, were all sovereign prophets. But in what manner 
 God spake unto them is not manifest. To say that when Moses went up to 
 God in Mount Sinai, it was a dream or vision, such as other prophets had, 
 is contrary to that distinction which God made between Moses and other 
 prophets (Numb. xii. 6, 7, 8). To say God spake or appeared as He is in 
 His own nature, is to deny His infiniteness, iiivisibility,incomprehensibility. 
 To say He spake by inspiration, or infusion of the Holy Spirit, as the Holy 
 Spirit signifieth the Deity, is to make Moses equal with Christ, in whom 
 
THE WORD OF GOD, ETC. 195 
 
 only the Godhead (as St. Paul speaketh, Col. ii. 9) dwelleth bodily. And 
 lastly, to say He spake, by the Holy Spirit, as it signifieth the graces or gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit, is to attribute nothing to Him supernatural. For God 
 disposeth men to piety, justice, mercy, truth, faith, and all manner of virtue, 
 both moral and intellectual, by doctrine, example, and by several occasions, 
 natural and ordinary. 
 
 And as these ways cannot be applied to God in His speaking to Moses at 
 Mount Sinai ; so also they cannot be applied to Him in His speaking to the 
 high priests from the mercy seat. Therefore in what manner God spake 
 to those sovereign prophets of the Old Testament, whose office it was 
 to inquire of Him, is not intelligible. In the time of the New Testament, 
 there was no sovereign prophet but our Saviour, who was both God that 
 spake, and the prophet to whom He spake. 
 
 To subordinate prophets of perpetual calling, I find not any place that 
 proveth God spake to them supernaturally ; but only in such manner as 
 naturally He inclineth men to piety, to belief, to righteousness, and to other 
 virtues all other Christian men. Which way, though it consist in constitu- 
 tion, instruction, education, and the occasions and invitements men have to 
 Christian virtues, yet it is tnily attributed to the operation of the Spirit of 
 God, or Holy Spirit, which we in our language call the Holy Ghost ; for 
 there is no good inchnation; that is not of the operation of God, But these 
 operations are not always supernatural. When therefore a prophet is said 
 to speak in the spirit, or by the Spirit of God, we are to understand no more 
 but that he speaks according to God's will, declared by the supreme 
 prophet. For the most common acceptation of the word spirit, is in the sig- 
 nification of a man's intention, mind, or disposition. 
 
 In the time of Moses, there were seventy men besides himself that 
 " prophesied " in the camp of the Israelites. In what manner God spake 
 to them, is declared in Numbers, chap. xi. verse 25 : " The Lord came 
 down in a cloud, and spake unto Moses, and took of the spirit that was 
 upon him, and gave it to the seventy elders. And it came to pass, when 
 the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease." By which 
 it is manifest, first, that their prophesying to the people was subservient 
 and subordinate to the prophesying of Moses ; for that God took of the 
 spirit of Moses, to put upon them ; so that they prophesied as Moses would 
 have them : otherwise they had not been suffered to prophesy at all. For 
 there was (verse 27) a complaint made against them to Moses ; and Joshua 
 would have Moses to have forbidden them j which he did not, but said to 
 Joshua, " be not jealous in my behalf." Secondly, that the spirit of God 
 in that place signifieth nothing but the mind and disposition to obey and 
 assist Moses in the administration of the government. For if it were meant 
 they had the substantial spirit of God ; that is, the divine nature, inspired 
 into them, then they had it in no less manner than Christ himself, in 
 whom only the spirit of God dwelt bodily. It is meant therefore of the 
 gift and grace of God, that guided them to co-operate with Moses ; from 
 whom their spirit was derived. And it appeareth (Numb. xi. 16) that they 
 were such as Moses himself should appoint for elders and officers of the 
 people : for the words are, " Gather unto me seventy men, whom thou 
 knowest to be elders and officers of the people : " where, "thou knowest," 
 is the same with " thou appointest," or " hast appointed to be such." For 
 we are told before (Exod. xviii. 24) that Moses following the counsel of 
 Jetliro, his father-in-law, did appoint judges and officers over the people, 
 such as feared God ; and of these were those seventy, whom God, by 
 putting upom them Moses' spirit, inclined to aid Moses in the administra- 
 tion of the kingdom : and in this sense the spirit of God is said (t Sam. 
 xvi. 13, 14) presently upon the anointing of David, to have come upon 
 
196 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 David, and left Saul ; God giving His graces to him He chose to govern His 
 people, and taking them away from him He rejected. So that by the spirit 
 is meant inclination to God's service ; and not any supernatural revelation. 
 God spake also many times by the event of lots ; wrhich were ordered by 
 such as He bad put in authority over His people. So we read that God 
 manifested by the lots which Saul caused to be drawn (i Sam. xiv. 43) the 
 fault that Jonathan had committed, in eating a honey-comb, contrary to the 
 oath taken by the people. And (Josh xviii. 10) God divided the land of 
 Canaan amongst the Israelites, by 'the "lots that Joshua did cast before the 
 l«rd in Shiloh." In the same manner it seemeth to be, that God dis- 
 covered (Joshua vii. 15, &c.) the crime of Achan. And these are the ways 
 whereby God declared His will in the old Testament. 
 
 All which ways He used also in the New Testament. To the Virgin Mary, 
 by a vision of an angel : to Joseph in a dream : again, to Taul, in the way to 
 Damascus, in a vision of our Saviour : and to Peter in the vision of a sheet let 
 down from heaven, with divers sorts of flesh ; of clean, and unclean beasts ; 
 and in prison, by vision of an angel : and to all the apostles, and writers of 
 the New Testament, by the graces of His spirit ; and to the apostles again, 
 at the choosing of Matthias in the place of Judas Iscariot, by lot. 
 
 Seeing then, all prophecy supposeth vision, or dream (which two, when 
 they be natural, are the same), or some especial gift of God so rarely ob- 
 served in mankind as to be admired where observed ; and seeing as well 
 such gifts, as the most extraordinary dreams and visions, may proceed from 
 God, not only by his supernatural and immediate, but also by His natural 
 operation, and by mediation of second causes ; there is need of reason and 
 judgment to discern between natural and supernatural gifts, and between 
 natural and supernatural visions or dreams. And consequently men had 
 need to be very circumspect and wary, in obeying the voice of man, that 
 pretending himself to be a prophet, requires us to obey God in that way, 
 which he in God's name telleth us "to be the way to happiness. For he 
 that pretends to teacli men the way of so great felicity, pretends to govern 
 them ; that is to say, to rule and reign over them ; which is a thing that all 
 men naturally desire, and is therefore worthy to be suspected of ambition and 
 imposture ; and consequently, ought to be examined and tried by every man, 
 before he yield them obedience ; unless he have yielded it them already, 
 in the institution of a commonwealth ; as when the prophet is the civil 
 sovereign, or by the civil .sovereign authorized. And if this examination 
 of prophets and spirits were not allowed to every one of the people, it 
 had been to no purpose to set out the marks by which every man 
 might be able to distinguish between those whom they ought, and those 
 whom they ought not to follow. Seeing therefore such marks are set 
 out (Deut. xiii. i, &c.) to know a prophet by; and (i John iv. I, &c.) 
 to know a spirit by : and seeing there is so much prophesying in the Old 
 Testament, and so much preaching in the New Testament, against propliets; 
 and so much greater a number ordinarily of false phophets, than of true ; 
 every one is to beware of obeying their directions, at their own peril. And 
 6rst, that there were many more false than true prophets, appears by this, 
 that when Ahab (i Kings xxii.) consulted four hundred prophets, they were 
 all false impostors, but only one Micaiah. And a little before the time of 
 the captivity, the prophets were generally liars. " Tlie prophets (saith the 
 Lord, by Jeremiah, chap. xiv. 14) prophesy lies in my name. I sent 
 them not, neither have I commanded them, nor spake unto them ; they 
 prophesy to you a false vision, a thing of nought, and the deceit of their 
 heart." Insomuch as God commanded the people by the mouth of the 
 prophet Jeremiah (chap, xxiii. 16) not to obey them: "Thus saith the 
 Lord of hosts, hearken not unto the words of the prophets, that prophesy to 
 
THE WORD OF GOD, ETC. 197 
 
 you. They make you vain, they speak a vision of their own heart, and not 
 out of the mouth of the Lord." 
 
 Seeing then there was in the time of the Old Testament such quarrels 
 amongst the visionary prophets, one contesting v/ith another, and asking, 
 •' When departed the Spirit from me to go to thee ? " as between Micaiah 
 and the rest of the four hundred ; and such giving of the lie to one another 
 (as in Jerem. xiv. 14), and such controversies in tlie New Testament at this 
 day, amongst the spiritual prophets ; every man then was and now is 
 bound to make use of his natural reason, to apply to all prophecy those 
 rules which God hath given us to discern the true from false. Of which 
 rules, in the Old Testament, one was, conformable' doctrine to that which 
 Moses the sovereign prophet had taught them ; and the other, the miracu- 
 lous power of foretelling what God would bring to pass, as I have already 
 showed out of Deut. xiii. i, &c. And in the New Testament there was but 
 one only mark ; and that was the preaching of this doctrine, " that Jesus is 
 the Christ," that is, king of the Jews, promised in the Old Testament. 
 Whosoever denied that article, he was a false prophet, whatsoever miracles 
 he might seem to work ; and he that taught it was a true prophet. For St. 
 John (i Epist. iv. 2, &c.), speaking expressly of the means to examine 
 spirits, whetlier they be of God, or not ; after he had told them that there 
 would arise false prophets, saith thus : " Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. 
 Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of 
 God ; " that is, is approved and allowed as a prophet of God : not that he 
 is a godly man, or one of the elect, for this, that he confesseth, professeth, 
 or preacheth Jesus to be the Christ ; but for that he is a prophet avowed. 
 For God sometimes speaketh by prophets, whose persons He hath not 
 accepted ; as He did by Balaam ; and as He foretold Saul of his death, by 
 the Witch of Endor. Again in the next verse, ' ' Every spirit that confesseth 
 not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of Christ ; and this is the 
 spirit of Antichrist." So that the rule is perfect on both sides ; that he is 
 a true prophet, which preacheth the Messiah already come, in the person of 
 Jesus ; and he a false one that denieth Him come, and looketh for Him in 
 some future impostor, that shall take upon him that honour falsely, whom 
 the apostle there properly calleth Antichrist. Every man therefore ought 
 to consider who is the sovereign prophet ; ihat is to say, who it is that is 
 God's vicegerent on earth ; and hath next under God, the authority of 
 governing Christian men ; and to observe for a rule that doctrine, which 
 in the name of God, He hath commanded to be taught ; and thereby to 
 examine and liy out the truth of those doctrines which pretended prophets, 
 with miracle, or without, shall at any time advance ; and if they find it 
 contrary to that rule, to do as they did that came to Moses and complained 
 that there were some that prophesied in the camp, whose authority so to do 
 they doubled of; and leave to the sovereign, as they did to Moses, to 
 uphold or to for)iid them, as he should see cause ; and if he disavow them, 
 then no more to obey their voice ; or if he approve them, then to obey them, 
 .is men to whom God hath given a part of the spirit of their sovereign. 
 For when Christian men take not their Christian sovereign for God's 
 prophet, they must either take their own dreams for the prophecy they 
 mean to be governed by, and the tumour of their own hearts for the Spirit of 
 God, or they must suffer themselves to be led by some strange prince ; or 
 by some of their fellow-subjects, that can bewitch them, by slander of the 
 government, into rebellion, without other miracle to confirm their calling 
 than sometimes an extraordinary success and impunity ; and by this means 
 destroying all laws, both divine and human, reduce all order, government, 
 and society to the first chaos of violence and civil war. 
 
198 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 Of Miracles, and their Use. 
 
 By "miracles" ave signified the admirable works of God : and therefore 
 lliey are also called " wonders." And because they are for the most part done 
 for a signification of His commandment, in such occasions, as without them, 
 men are apt to doubt, (following their private natural reasoning,) what He 
 hath commanded, and what not, they are commonly, in Holy Scripture, 
 called "signs," in the same sense as they are called by the Latins ostenta 
 and fortetita, from showing and fore-signifying that which the Almighty is 
 about to bring to pass. 
 
 To understand therefore what is a miracle, we must first understand what 
 works they are which men wonder at and call admirable. And there be 
 but two things which make men wonder at any event : the one is, if it be 
 strange, that is to say, such as the like of it hath never, or very rarely, been 
 produced : the other is, if when it is produced, we cannot imagine it to have 
 been done by natural means, but only by the immediate hand of God. But 
 when we see some possible, natural cause of it, how rarely soever the like 
 has been done, or if the like have been often done, how impossible soever 
 it be to imagine a natural means thereof, we no more wonder nor esteem it 
 for a miracle. 
 
 Therefore, if a horse or cow should speak, it were a miracle ; because 
 both the thing is strange, and the natural cause difficult to imagine. So also 
 were it to see a strange deviation of Nature, in the production of some new 
 shape of a living creature. But when a man, or other animal, engenders 
 his like, though we know no more how this is done than the other ; yet 
 because it is usual, it is no miracle. In like manner, if a man be metamor- 
 phosed into a stone, or into a pillar, it is a miracle ; because strange : but 
 if a piece of wood be so changed ; because we see it often, it is no miracle ; 
 and yet we know no more by what operation of God the one is brought to 
 pass than the other. 
 
 The first rainbow that was seen in the world was a miracle, because the 
 first ; and consequently strange ; and served for a sign from God, placed in 
 heaven, to assure His people there should be no more any universal destruc- 
 tion of the world by water. But at this day, because they are frequent, they 
 are not miracles, neither to them that know their natural causes, nor to them 
 who know them not. Again, there be many rare works produced by the 
 art of man ; yet when we know they are done, because thereby we know 
 also the means how they are done, we count them not for muracles, because 
 not wrought by the immediate hand of God, but of human industry. 
 
 Furthermore, seeing admiration and wonder are consequent to the know- 
 ledge and experience wherewith men are endued, some more, some less ; 
 it foUoweth that the same thing may be a miracle to one and not to another. 
 And thence it is that ignorant and superstitious men make great wonders of 
 those works which other men, knowing to proceed from Nature (which is 
 not the immediate, but the ordinary work of God), admire not at all : as 
 when eclipses of the sun and moon have been taken for supernatural works 
 by the common people ; when nevertheless there were others who could 
 from their natural causes have foretold the very hour they should arrive : 
 or as when a man, by confederacy and secret intelligence, getting know- 
 ledge of the private actions of an ignorant, unwary man, thereby tells him 
 what he has done in former times ; it seems to him a miraculous thing ; 
 
MIRACLES, AND THElli USE. 199 
 
 but amongst wise and cautelous men such miracles as those cannot easily be 
 done. ^ 
 
 Again, it belongeth to the nature of a miracle lliat it be wrought for the 
 procuring of credit to God's messengers, ministers, and prophets, that 
 thereby men may know they are called, sent, and employed by God, and 
 thereby be the better inclined to obey them. And therefore, though the 
 creation of the world, and after that the destruction of all living creatures 
 in the universal deluge, were admirable works ; yet because they were not 
 done to procure credit to any prophet or other minister of God, they use 
 not to be called miracles. For how admirable soever any work be, the 
 admiration consistetli not in that it could be done ; because men naturally 
 believe the Almighty can do all things ; but because He does it at the 
 prayer or word of a man. But the works of God in Egypt, by the hand of 
 Moses, were properly miracles ; because they were done with intention to 
 make the people of Israel believe that Moses came unto them, not out of 
 any design of his own interest, but as sent from God. Therefore, after God 
 had commanded him to deliver the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage, 
 when he said (Exod. iv. i), "They will not believe me, but will say, the 
 Lord hath not appeared unto me," God gave him power to turn the rod he 
 had in his hand into a serpent, and again to return it into a rod ; and by 
 putting his hand into his bosom, to make it leprous ; and again by putting 
 it out, to make it whole ; to make the children of Israel believe (as it is 
 verse 5) that the God of their fathers had appeared unto him : and if that 
 were not enough, He gave him power to turn their waters into blood. And 
 when he had done these miracles before the people, it is said (verse 31) that 
 " they believed him." Nevertheless, for fear of Pharaoh, theydurst not yet 
 obey him. Therefore, the other works which were done to plague Pharaoh 
 aud the Egyptians, tended all to make the Israelites believe in Moses, and 
 were properly m iracles. In like manner, if we consider all the miracles done 
 by the hand of Moses, and all the rest of the prophets, till the captivity ; and 
 those of our Saviour, and His apostles afterwards ; we shall find, their end 
 was always to beget or confirm belief, that they came not of their own 
 motion, but were sent by God. We may farther observe in Scripture, that 
 the end of miracles was to beget belief, not universally in all men, elect and 
 reprobate, but in the elect only ; that is to say, in such as God had 
 determined should become His subjects. For those miraculous plagues of 
 Egypt had not for their end the conversion of Pharaoh ; for God had told 
 Moses before that Pie would harden the heart of Pharaoh, that he should not 
 let the people go : and when he let them go at last, not the miracles 
 persuaded him, but the plagues forced him to it. So also of our Saviour, 
 it is written (Matt. xiii. 58), that He wrought not many miracles in Ilis own 
 country because of their unbelief; and (in Mark vi. 5) instead of "He 
 wrought not many," it is " He could work none." It was not because He 
 wanted power, which to say, were blasphemy against God ; nor that the end 
 of miracles was not to convert incredulous men to Christ ; for the end of all 
 the miracles of Moses, of the prophets, of our Saviour, and of His apostles 
 was to add men to the church ; but it was because the end of their miracles 
 was to add to the church, not all men, but such as should be saved ; that is 
 to say, such as God had elected. Seeing therefore our Saviour was sent from 
 His Father, He could not use His power in the conversion of those whom 
 His Father had rejected. They that expounding this place of St. Mark say 
 that this word, "He could not," is put for "He would not," do it without 
 example in the Greek tongue: where "would not," is put sometimes for 
 " could not," in things inanimate, that have no will ; but " could not " for 
 "would not" never: and thereby lay a stumbling-block before weak 
 Christians ; as if Christ could do no miracles but amongst the credilous. 
 
200 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 From that which I have here set down of the nature and use of a miracle, 
 we may define it tlius : " a miracle is a work of God (besides His opera- 
 tion by the way of Nature, ordained in the creation) done, for the making 
 manifest to His elect the mission of an extraordinary minister for their 
 salvation." 
 
 And from this definition we may. infer : first, that in all miracles the work 
 done is not the effect of any virtue in the prophet, because it is the effect of 
 the immediate hand of God : that is to say, God hath done it, without using 
 the prophet therein as a subordinate cause. 
 
 Secondly, that no devil, angel, or other created spirit, can do a miracle. 
 For it must either be by virtue of some natural science, or by incantation, 
 that is, by virtue of words. For if the enchanters do it by their own power 
 i)ulependent, there is some power tliat proceedeth not from God, which all 
 men deny; and if they do it by power given them, then is the work not from 
 the immediate hand of God, but natural, and consequently no miracle. 
 
 There be some texts of Scripture that seem to attribute the power 
 of working wonders equal to some of those immediate miracles wrought by 
 God himself, to certain arts of magic and incantation. As for example, when 
 we read that after the rod of Moses being cast on the ground became a 
 serpent (Exod. vii. ii), "the magicians of Egypt did the like by their en- 
 chantments : " and that after Moses had turned the waters of the Egyptian 
 streams, rivers, ponds, and pools of water into blood (Exod. vii. 22), " the 
 magicians did so liliewise with their enchantments ; " and that after Moses 
 had by the power of God brought frogs upon the land (Exod. viii. 7), "the 
 magicians also did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the 
 land of Egypt ; " will not a man be apt to attribute miracles to enchant- 
 ments ; that is to say, to the efficacy of the sound of words ; and think the 
 same very well proved out of this, and other such places? And yet there is 
 no place of Scripture that telleth us what an enchantment is. If therefore 
 enchantment be not, as many think it, a working of strange effects by spells 
 and words ; but imposture and delusion, wrought by ordinary means, and 
 so far from supernatural, as the impostors need not the study so much as of 
 natural causes, but the ordinary ignorance, stupidity, and superstition of 
 mankind, to do them ; those texts that seem to countenance the power of 
 magic, witchcraft, and enchantment, must needs have another sense than at 
 first sight they seem to bear. 
 
 For it is evident enough that words have no effect but on those that 
 understand them ; and tlien they have no other but to signify the intentions 
 or passions of them that speak ; and thereby produce hope, fear, or other 
 passions or conceptions in the hearer. Thierefore when a rod seemeth a 
 serpent, or the waters blood, or any other miracle seemeth done by 
 enchantment ; if it be not to the edification of God's people, not the rod, 
 nor the water, nor any otlier thing is enchanted ; that is to say, wrought 
 upon by the words, but the spectator. So that all the miracle consisteth in 
 this, that the enchanter has deceived a man ; which is no miracle, but a 
 very easy matter to do. 
 
 For such is the ignorance and aptitude to error generally of all men, but 
 especially of them that have not much knowledge of natural causes, and of 
 the nature and interests of men ; as by innumerable and easy tricks to be 
 abused. What opinion of miraculous power, before it was known theie 
 was a science of the course of the stars, might a man have gained, that 
 should have told the people this hour or day the sun should be darkened? 
 A juggler by the handling of his goblets and other trinkets, if it were not 
 now ordinarily practised, would be thought to do his wonders by the 
 power at least of the devil. • A man that hath practised to speak by 
 drawing in of his breath (which kind of men in ancient time were called 
 
MIRACLES, AND THEIR USE. 201 
 
 ventriloqiii), and so make ihe weakness of his voice seem to proceed, not 
 from the \v£ak impulsion of the organs of speech, but from distance of 
 place, is able to make very many men believe it is a voice from Heaven, 
 whatsoever he please to tell them. And for a crafty man that hath inquired 
 into the secrets and familiar confessions that one man ordinarily maketh to 
 another of his actions and adventures past, to tell them him again is no 
 hard matter ; and yet there be many that by such means as that obtain the 
 reputation of being conjurers. But it is too long a business to reckon up 
 the several sorts of those men, which the Greeks called 6avnaTovpyoi, that 
 is to say, workers of things wonderful : and yet these do all they do by 
 their own single dexterity. But if we look upon the impostures wrought 
 by confederacy, there is nothing how impossible soever to be done that is 
 impossible to be believed. For two men conspiring, one to seem lame, the 
 other to cure him with a charm, will deceive many ; but many conspiring, 
 one to seem lame, another so to cure him, and all the rest to bear witness, 
 will deceive many more. 
 
 In this aptitude of mankind to give too hasty belief to pretended miracles, 
 tliere can be no better, nor I think any other caution, than that which God 
 hath prescribed, first by Moses, as I have said before in the precedent chapter, 
 in the beginning of the xiiith and end of the xviiith of Deuteronomy ; that we 
 take not any for prophets that teach any other religion than that which God's 
 lieutenant, which at that time was Moses, hath established ; nor any, though 
 he teach the same religion, whose prediction we do not see come to pass. 
 Moses therefore in his time, and Aaron and his successors in their times, 
 and the sovereign governor of God's people, next under God himself, that 
 is to say, the head of the Church, in all times, are to be consulted, what 
 doctrine he hath established, before we give credit to a pretended miracle 
 or prophet. And when that is done, the thing they pretend to be a miracle, 
 we must both see it done, and use all means possible to consider, whether 
 it be really done ; and not only so, but whether it be such as no man can do 
 the like by his natural power, but that it requires the immediate hand of 
 God. And in this also we must have recourse to God's lieutenant, to 
 whom in all doubtful cases we have submitted our private judgments. For 
 example : if a man pretend, after certain words spoken over a piece of 
 bread, that presently God hath made it not bread, but a god or a man, or 
 both, and nevertheless it looketh still as like bread as ever it did : there is 
 no reason for any man to think it really done, nor consequently to fear him, 
 till he inquire of God, by His vicar or lieutenant, whether it be done or not. 
 If he say not, then foUoweth that which Moses saith (Deut. xviii. 22), " he 
 hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not fear him." If he say it is 
 done, then he is not to contradict it. So also if we see not, but only hear 
 tell of a miracle, we are to consult the lawful Church ; that is to say, the 
 lawful head thereof, how far we are to give credit to the relators of it. And 
 this is chiefly the case of men that in these days live under Christian 
 sovereigns. For in these times I do not know one man that ever saw any 
 such wondrous work, done by the charm, or at the word, or prayer of a man, 
 that a man endued but with a mediocrity of reason would think super- 
 natural : and the question is no more whether what we see done be a 
 miracle ; whether the miracle we hear or read of were a real work, and not 
 the act of a tongue or pen ; but in plain terms, whether the report be true or 
 a lie. In which question we are not every one to make our own private reason 
 or conscience, but the public reason, that is, the reason of God's supreme 
 lieutenant, judge ; and indeed we have made him judge already, if we have 
 given him a sovereign power to do all , that is necessary for our peace and 
 defence. A private man has always the liberty, because thought is free, to 
 believe or not believe in his heart those acts that have been given out for 
 
203 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 miracles, according as he shall see what benefit can accrue by men's belief, 
 to those that pretend or countenance them, and thereby conjecture whether 
 they be miracles or lies. But when it comes to confession of that faith, 
 the private reason must submit to the public ; that is to say, to God s 
 lieutenant. But who is this lieutenant of God, and head of the Church, 
 shall be considered in its proper place hereafter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World 
 f to Come, and Redemption. 
 
 The maintenance of civil society depending on justice, and justice on the 
 power of life and death, and other less rewards and punishments, residing in 
 them that have the sovereignty of the commonwealth ; it is impossible a 
 commonweath should stand, where any other than the sovereign hath a 
 power of giving greater rewards than life, and of inflicting greater punish- 
 ments than death. Now seeing "eternal life " is a greater reward than the 
 "life present;" and " eternal torment " a greater punishment than the 
 ' ' death of nature ;" it is a thing worthy to be well considered of all men 
 that desire, by obeying authority, to avoid the calamities of confusion and 
 civil war, what is meant in Holy Scripture by "life eternal," and " torment 
 eternal ;" and for what offences and against whom committed, men are to 
 be " eternally tormented ;" and for what actions they are to obtain " eternal 
 life." 
 
 And first we find that Adam was created in such a condition of life, as 
 had he not broken the commandment of God, he had enjoyed it in the para- 
 dise of Eden everlastingly. For there was the "tree of life," whereof he 
 was so long allowed to eat, as he should forbear to eat of the tree of 
 knowledge of good and evil ; which was not allowed him. And therefore 
 as soon as he had eaten of it, God thrust him out of paradise (Gen. iii. 22), 
 ' ' lest he should put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and live 
 for ever." By which it seemeth to me (with submission nevertheless both 
 in this, and in all questions whereof the determination dependeth on the 
 Scriptures, to the interpretation of the Bible authorized by the common- 
 wealth, whose subject I am), that Adam, if he had not sinned, had had an 
 eternal life on earth, and that mortality entered upon himself and his 
 posterity by his first sin. Not that actual death then entered ; for Adara 
 tlien could never have had children ; whereas he lived long after, and saw a 
 numerous posterity ere he died. But where it is said (Gen. ii. 17), "In the 
 day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die," it must needs be meant 
 of his mortality and certitude of death. Seeing then eternal life was lost by 
 Adam's forfeiture in committing sin, he that should cancel that forfeiture 
 was to recover thereby that life again. Now Jesus Christ hath satisfied for 
 the sins of all that believe in Him ; and therefore recovered to all believers 
 that .eternal life which was lost by the sin of Adam. And in this sense it 
 is that the comparison of St. Paul holdeth (Rom. v. 18, 19), " As by the 
 offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the 
 righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to the justification of 
 life ;" which is aga.in (l Cor. xv. 21, 22) more perspicuously delivered in 
 these words: " For since by man came death, by man came also the re- 
 surrection of the doad. For as in Adj^m all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
 made alive." 
 . Concerning the place wherein men shall enjoy that eternal life which 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF ETERNAL LIFE. 203 
 
 Christ hath obtained for them, the texts next before alleged seem to make 
 it on earth. For if as in Adam all die, that is, have forfeited paradise and 
 eternal life on earth, even so in Christ all shall be made alive ; then all men 
 shall be made to live on earth, for else the comparison were not proper. 
 Hereunto seemeth to agree that of the Psalmist (Psalm cxxxiii. 3), " upon 
 Zion God commanded tlie blessing, even life for evermore ; " for Zion is in 
 Jerusalem upon earth ; as also that of St. John (Rev. ii. 7), "To him that 
 overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of 
 the paradise of God." This was the tree of Adam's eternal life ; but his 
 life was to have been on earth. The same seemeth to be confirmed again 
 by St. John (Rev. xxi. 2), where he saith, " I John saw the lioly city, new 
 Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride 
 adorned for her husband = " and again (verse 10) to the same effect ; as if 
 he should say, the new " Jerusalem," the paradise of God, at the coming 
 again of Christ, should come down to God's people from heaven, and not 
 they go up to it from earth. And this differs nothing from that which the 
 two men in white clothing, that is the two angels, said to the apostles that 
 were looking upon Christ ascending (Acts i. 11), " This same Jesus, who is 
 taken upon from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him go 
 up into heaven." Which souudeth as if they had said He should come 
 down to govern them under His Father eternally here, and not to take them 
 up to govern them in heaven ; and is conformable to the restoration of the 
 kingdom of God instituted under Moses, which was a political govern- 
 ment of the Jews on earth. Again, that saying of our Saviour (Matt. 
 xxii. 30), " that in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in 
 marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven," is a description of an 
 eternal life, resembling that which we lost in Adam in the point of 
 marriage. For seeing Adam and Eve, if they had not sinned, had lived on 
 earth eternally in their individual persons ; it is manifest they should not 
 continually have procreated their kind ; for if immortals should have 
 generated as mankind doth now, tlie earth in a small time would not have 
 been able to afford them place to stand on. The Jews that asked our 
 Saviour the question, whose wife the woman that had married many 
 brothers should be in the resurrection, knew not what were the consequences 
 of life eternal : and therefore our Saviour puts them in mind of this conse- 
 quence of immortality ; that there shall be no generation, and consequently 
 no marriage, no more than there is marriage or generation among the 
 angels. The comparison between that eternal life which Adam lost, and 
 our Saviour by His victory over death hath recovered, holdeth also in this ; 
 that as Adam lost eternal life by his sin, and yet lived after it for a time, 
 so the faithful Christian hath recovered eternal life by Christ's passion, 
 though he die a natural death, and remain dead for a time, namely, till the 
 resurrection. For as death is reckoned from the condemnation of Adam, 
 not from the execution ; so life is reckoned from the absolution, not from 
 the resurrection of them that are elected in Christ. 
 
 That the place wherein men are to live eternally, after the resurrection, 
 is the lieavens (meaning by heaven, those parts of the world which are the 
 most remote from earth, as where the stars are, or above the stars, in 
 ancthcr higher heaven, called ecelum empyreum, whereof there is no mention 
 in Scripture, nor ground in reason), is not easily to be drawn from any 
 text that I can find. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant the kingdom of 
 the King that dwelleth in heaven ; and His kingdom was the people of 
 Israel, whom He ruled by the prophets, His lieutenants ; first Moses, and 
 after him Eleazar, and the sovereign priests, till in the days of Samuel they 
 rebelled, and would have a mortal man for their king, after the inanner of 
 other nations. And when our Saviour Christ, by the preaching of His 
 
204 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 ministeis, shall have persuaded the Jews to return, and called the Gentiles 
 to His obedience, then shall there be a new kingdom of heaven ; because 
 our king shall then be God, whose " throne " is heaven : without any necessity 
 evident in the Scripture, that man shall ascend to his happiness any higher 
 than God's "footstool" the earth. On the contrary, we find written (John 
 iii. 13) that "no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down 
 from heaven, even the Son of man, that is in heaven." Where I observe by the 
 way, that these words are not, as those which go immediately before, the 
 words of our Saviour, but of St. John himself ; for Christ was then not in 
 heaven, but upon the earth. The like is said of David (Acts ii. 34), where 
 St. Peter, to prove the ascension of Christ, using the words of the Psalmist 
 (Psalm xvi, 10), " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine holy 
 one to see corruption," saith they were spoken not of David but of Christ ; 
 and to prove it addeth this reason, " For David is not a.scended into heaven." 
 But to this a man may easily answer and say, that though their bodies were 
 not to ascend till the general day of judgment, yet their souls were in 
 heaven as socn as they were departed from their bodies ; which also 
 feemeth to be confirmed by the words of our Saviour (Luke xx. 37, 38), 
 who proving the resurrection out of the words of Moses, saith thus, "That 
 the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the 
 Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 
 For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for they all live 
 to Him." But if these words bfe to be understood only of the immortality 
 of the soul, they prove not at all that which our Saviour intended to 
 prove, which was the resurrection of the body, that is to say, the immortality 
 of the man. Therefore our Saviour meaneth that those patriarchs were 
 immortal ; not by a property consequent to the essence and nature of 
 mankind ; but by the will of God, that was pleased of His mere grace to 
 bestow " eternal life " upon the faithful. And though at that time the 
 patriarchs and many other faithful men were "dead," yet as it is in the 
 text, they " lived to God ;" that is, they were written in the Book of Life 
 with them that were absolved of their sins, and ordained to life eternal at 
 the resurrection. That the soul of man is in its own nature eternal, and a 
 living creature independent on the body, or that any mere man is immortal 
 otherwise than by the resurrection in the last day, except Enoch and Elias, 
 is a doctrine not apparent in Scripture. The whole of the xivth chapter of 
 Job, which is the speech not of his friends, but of himself, is a complaint 
 of this mortality of nature ; and yet no contradiction of the immortality at 
 the resurrection. " There is hope of a tree," saith he (verse 7), " if it be 
 cast down. Though the root thereof wax old, and the stock thereof die 
 in the ground, yet when it scenteth the water it will bud, and biing forth 
 boughs like a plant. But man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth 
 up the ghost, and where is he?" And (verse 12), "Man lietli down and 
 riseth not, till the heavens be no more." But when is it that the heavens 
 shall be no more ? St. Peter tells us that it is at the general resurrection. 
 For in his second Epistle, chap. iii. verse 7) lie saith that "the heavens and 
 the earth that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment, 
 and perdition of ungodly men ;" and (verse 12), " looking for, and hasting to 
 the coming of God, wherein the heavens shall be on fire and shall be dissolved, 
 and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we according 
 to the promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness." Therefore where Job saith "man riseth not till the 
 heavens be no more ;" it is all one as if he had said the immortal life (and 
 soul and life in the Scripture do usually signify the same thing) beginneth 
 not in man till the resurrection and day of judgment ; and hath for cause, 
 , not his specifical nature and generation, but the promise. For St. Peter 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF HELL. 205 
 
 says, not "We look for new heavens and a new earth from nature," but 
 " from promise." 
 
 Lastly, seeing it hath been already proved out of divers evident places of 
 Scripture, in chap. xxxv. of this book, that the kingdom of God is a civil 
 commonwealth, where God himself is sovereign, by virtue first of the 
 " old," and since of the " new " covenant, wherein He reigneth by His vicar 
 or lieutenant ; the same places do therefore also prove, that after the coming 
 again of our Saviour in His majesty and glory, to reign actually and eter- 
 nally, the kingdom of God is to be on earth. But because this doctrine, 
 though proved out of places of Scripture not few nor obscure, will appear 
 to most men a novelty, I do but propound it ; maintaining nothing in this, 
 or any other paradox of religion ; but attending the end of that dispute of 
 the sword, concerning the authority, not yet amongst ray countrymen 
 decided, by which all sorts of doctrine are to be approved or rejected ; and 
 whose commands, both in speech and writing, whatsoever be the opinions 
 of private men, must by all men, that mean to be protected by their laws, 
 be obeyed. For the points of doctrine concerning the kingdom of God 
 have so great influence on the kingdom of man, as not to be determined but 
 by them that under God have the sovereign power. 
 
 As the kingdom of God, and eternal life, so also God's enemies, and their 
 torments after judgment, appear by the Scripture to have their place on 
 earth. The name of the place, where all men remain till the resurrection, 
 that were either buried or swallowed up of the earth, is usually called in 
 Scripture by worJs that signify "under ground;" which the Latins read 
 generally infernus and infemi, and the Greek ASijs, that is to say, a place 
 where men cannot see ; and containeth as well the grave as any other deeper 
 place. But for the place of the damned after the resurrection, it is not deter- 
 mined, neither in the Old nor New Testament, by any note of situation ; 
 but only by the company: as that it shall be where such wicked men 
 w.ere, as God in former times, in extraordinary and miraculous manner, had 
 destroyed from off the face of the earth : as for example, that they are in 
 Inferno, in Tartarus, or in the bottomless pit ; because Corah, Dathan, and 
 Abiron, were swallowed up alive into the earth. Not that the writers of the 
 Scripture would have us believe there could be in the globe of the earth, 
 which is not only finite, but also, compared to the height- of the stars, of no 
 considerable magnitude, a pit without a bottom, that is, a hole of infinite 
 depth, such us the Greeks in their "demonology" (that is to say, in their 
 doctrine concerning "demons"), and after them the Romans, called 
 Tartarus ; of which Virgil (/En. vi. 578, 559) says, 
 
 Bis patet in praeceps fantum, tenditque sub umbras, 
 Quantus ad astherium coeli suspectus Olympum : 
 
 for that is a thing the proportion of earth to heaven cannot bear: but that 
 we should believe them there, indefinitely, where those men are on whom 
 God inflicted that exemplary punishment. 
 
 Again, because those mighty men of the earth, that lived in the time of 
 Noah before the flood, (which the Greeks called " heroes," and the Scrip- 
 ture " giants, " and both say were begotten by copulatioji of the children of 
 God with the children of men,) were for their wicked life destroyed by the 
 general deluge ; the place of the damned is therefore also sometimes marked 
 out by the company of those deceased giants ; as Proverbs xxi. 16, " The 
 man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the 
 congregation of the giants :" and Job xxvi. 5, "Behold the giants groan 
 under water, and they that dwell with them." Here the place of the 
 damned is under the water. And Isaiah xiv. 9, " Hell is troubled how to 
 meet thee (that is, the king of Babylon) and will displace the giants for 
 
2o6 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 thee : " and here again the place of the damned, if the s jiise be literal, is to 
 be under water. Thirdly, because the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by 
 the extraordinary wrath of God, were consumed for their wickedness with fire 
 and brimstone, and together with them the country about made a stinking 
 bituminous lake : the place of the damned is ■ ometimes expressed by fire, 
 and a fiery lake, as in the Apocalypse xxi. 8, " But the timorous, incre- 
 dulous, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, 
 and idolaters, and all liars, shall have tlieir part in the lake that burneth 
 with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." So that it is manifest, 
 that hell fire, which is here expressed by metaphor from the real fire 
 of Sodom, signifieth not any certain kind or place of torment ; but is to be 
 taken indefinitely for destruction, as it is in Rev. xx. 14, where it is said, 
 that "death and hell were cast into the lake of fire ; " that is to say, were 
 abolished and destroyed ; as if after the day of judgment there shall be no 
 more dying, nor no more going into hell ; that is, no more going to Hades, 
 (from which word perhaps our word Hell is derived,) which is the same 
 with no more dying. 
 
 Fourthly, from the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians, of 
 which it is written (Exod. x. 23), " They saw not one another, neither 
 rose any man from his place for three days ; but all the children of Israel 
 had light in their dwellings ; " the place of the wicked after judgment, is 
 called "utter darkness," or, as it is in the original, "darkness without." 
 And so it is expressed (Matt. xxii. 13) where the king commanded his ser» 
 vants, " to bind hand and foot the man that had not on his wedding gar- 
 ment, and to cast him out," cis t4 o-kotos ri {^lirepov, ' ' into external dark- 
 ness," or " darkness without : " which though translated " utter darkness," 
 does not signify "how great," but "where" that darkness is to be; 
 namely, "without the habitation" of God's elect. 
 
 Lastly, whereas tliere was a place near Jerusalem, called the Valley of 
 the Children of Hinnon ; in a part whereof, called Tophet, the Jews 
 had committed most grievous idolatry, sacrificing their children to the idol 
 Moloch ; and wherein also God had afflicted his enemies with most grievous 
 punishments ; and wherein Josiah had burned the priests of Moloch upon 
 their own altars, as appeareth at large in the 2nd of Kings, chap, xxiii. ; 
 the place served afterwards to receive the filth and garbage which was 
 carried thither out of the city ; and there used to be fires made from time 
 to time to purify the air, and take away the stench of carrion. From this 
 abominable place, the Jews used ever after to call the place of the damned 
 by the- name of Gehenna, or Valley of Hinnon. And this Gehenna 
 is that word which is usually now translated "hell;" and from the fires 
 from time to time there burning, we have the notion of "everlasting" and 
 " unquenchable fire. " 
 
 Seeing now there is none that so interprets the Scripture, as that after 
 the day of jiidgment, the wicked are all eternally to be punished in the 
 Valley of Hinnon ; or that they shall so rise again, as to be ever after under 
 ground or under water ; or that after the resurrection they shall no more 
 see one another, nor stir from one place to another : it foUoweth, methinks, 
 very necessarily, that that jyhich is thus said concerning hell fire is spoken 
 metaphorically ; and that therefore there is =■ proper sense to be inquired 
 after (for of all metaphors there is some real ground that may be expressed 
 in proper words), both of the " place of hell," and the nature of " hellish 
 torments," and "tormentors." 
 
 And first for the tormentors, we have their nature and propeities, exactly 
 and properly delivered by the names of the Enemy, or Satan ; the 
 Accuser, or Diabolus ; the Destroyer, or Abaddon. Which signifi- 
 cant names, Satan, Devil, Abaddon, set not forth to us any individual 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF HELL. 207 
 
 person, as proper names use to do ; but only an office, or quality j 
 and are therefore appellatives ; which ought not to have been left untrans- 
 lated, as they are in the Laiin and modern Bibles; because thereby 
 they seem to be proper names of "demons;'' and men are the more 
 easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils ; which at that time 
 was the religion of the Gentiles, and contrary to that of Moses and of 
 Christ. 
 
 And because by the Enemy, the Accuser, and Destroyer, is meant 
 the enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God ; therefore if 
 the kingdom of God after the resurrection be upon the earth, as in the 
 former chapter I have shown by Scripture it seems to be, the Enemy and 
 his kingdom must be on earth also. For so also was it, in the time before 
 the Jews had deposed God. For God's kingdom was in Palestine ; and 
 the nations round about, were the kingdoms of the Enemy ; and conse- 
 quently by Satan is meant any earthly enemy of the Church. 
 
 The torments of hell, are expressed sometimes, by " weeping and gnash- 
 ing of teeth," as Matt. viii. 12. Sometimes by " the worm of conscience ;" 
 as Isaiah Ixvi. 24, and Mark ix. 44, 46, 48 : sometimes, by fire, as in the 
 place now quoted,"" where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," 
 and many places beside: sometimes by "shame and contempt," as Dan. 
 xii. 2, " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake ; 
 some to everlsisting life ; and some to shame, and everlasting contempt." 
 All which places design metaphorically a grief and discontent of mind, 
 from the sight of that eternal felicity in others, which they themselves 
 through their own incredulity and disobedience have lost. And because 
 such felicity in others, is not sensible but by comparison with their own 
 actual miseries j it followeth that they are to suffer such bodily pains and 
 calamities, as are incident to those, who not only live under evil and cruel 
 governors, but have also for enemy the eternal king of the saints, God 
 Almighty. And amongst these bodily pains, is to be reckoned also to 
 every one of the wicked a second death. For though the Scripture be clear 
 for an universal resurrection ; yet we do not read, that to any of the 
 reprobate is promised an eternal life. For whereas St. Paul (l Cor. xv. 
 42, 43) to the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again, 
 saith, that " The body is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruptibn ; 
 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weakness, it is 
 raised in power." Glory and power cannot be applied to the bodies of the 
 wicked : nor can the name of ' ' second death " be applied to those that can 
 never die but once : and although in metaphorical speech, a calamitous life 
 everlasting may be called an everlasting death, yet it cannot well be under- 
 stood of a " second death." 
 
 The fire prepared for the wicked, is an everlasting fire : that is to say, 
 the estate wherein no man can be without torture, both of body and mind, 
 after the resurrection, shall endure for ever ; and in that sense the fire shall 
 be unquenchable, and the torments everlasting: but it cannot thence be 
 inferred, tliat he who shall be cast into that fire, or be tormented with those 
 torments, shall endure and resist them so as to be eternally burnt and 
 tortured, and yet never be destroyed, nor die. And though there be many 
 places that affirm everlasting fire and torments, into which men may be 
 cast successively one after another as long as the world lasts, yet I find 
 none that affirm there shall be an eternal life therein of any individual 
 person ; but to the contrary, an everlasting death, which is the second 
 death. (Rev. xx. 13, 14), "For after death and the grave shall have 
 delivered up the dead which were in them, and every man be judged 
 according to his works ; death and the grave shall also be cast into the lake 
 of fire. This is the second death." Whereby it is evident that there is tQ 
 
2o8 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 be a second death of every one that shall be condemned at the day of judg- 
 ment, after which he shall die no more. 
 
 The joys of life eternal are in Seriplure comprehended all under the name 
 " Salvation," or " being saved." To be saved is to be secured, either re- 
 spectively against special evils, or absolutely against all evils, comprehend- 
 ing want, sickness, and death itself. And because man was created in a 
 condition immortal, not subject to corruption, and consequently to nothing 
 that tendeth to the dissolution of his nature ; and fell from (hat happiness 
 by the sin of Adam ; it followeth, that to be "saved" from sin, is to be 
 saved from all the evil and calamities that sin hath brought upon us. And 
 therefore in the Holy Scripture, remission of sin, and salvation from death 
 and misery, is the same thing, as it appears by the words of our Saviour, 
 who having cured a man sick of the paLsy by saying (Matt. ix. 2), " Son be 
 of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee ;" and knowing that the Scribes 
 took for blasphemy that a man should pretend to forgive sins, asked them 
 (verse 5) " whether it were easier to say. Thy sins be forgiven thee, or. Arise 
 and walk ; '' signifying thereby, that it was all one, as to the saving of the 
 sick, to say, " Thy sins are forgiven," and " Arise and walk ;" and that He 
 used that form of speech only to show He had the power to forgive sins. 
 And it is besides evident in reason, that since death and misery were the 
 punishments of sin, the discharge of sin must also be a discharge of death 
 and misery ; that is to say, salvation absohite, such as the faithful are to 
 enjoy after the day of judgment, by the power and favour of Jesus Christ, 
 who for that cause is called our " Saviour." 
 
 Concerning particular salvations, such as are understood ( I Sam. xiv. 39), 
 " as the Lord liveth that saveth Israel," that is, from their temporary enemies, 
 and (2 Sam. xxii. 3), " Thou art my Saviour, thou savest me from violence ;" 
 and (2 Kings xiii. 5), " God gave tlie Israelites a Saviour, and so they were 
 delivered from the hand of the Assyrians," and the like, I need say nothing ; 
 there being neither difficulty nor interest lo corrupt the interpretation of texts 
 of that kind. 
 
 But concerning the general salvation, because it must be in the kingdom 
 of heaven, there is great difficulty concerning the place. On one side, by 
 " kingdom," which is an estate ordained by men for their perpetual security 
 against enemies and want, it seemeth that this salvation should be on earth. 
 For by salvation is set forth unto us a glorious reign of our king, by con- 
 quest ; not a safety by escape : and therefore there where we look for sal- 
 vation, we must look also for triumph ; and before triumph, for victory ; 
 and before victory, for battle ; which cannot well be supposed shall be in 
 heaven. But how good soever this reason may be, I will not trust to it, 
 without very evident places of Scripture. The state of salvation is described 
 at large (Isaiah xxxiii. 20, 21, 22, 23, 24) : 
 
 " Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities ; thine eyes shall see 
 Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; 
 not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the 
 cords thereof be broken. 
 
 " But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and 
 streams ; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship 
 pass thereby. 
 
 " For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our 
 king, he will save us. 
 
 "Thy tackhngs are loosed ; they could not well strengthen their mast ; 
 they could not spread the sail : then is the prey of a great spoil divided ; the 
 lame take the prey : 
 
 " And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick ; the people that shall 
 dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity." 
 
SIGNIFICATION OF SALVATION. 209 
 
 In which words we have the place from whence salvation is to proceed, 
 "Jerusalem, a quiet habitation;" the eternity of it, ''a tabernacle that 
 shall not be taken down,'' &c. ; the Saviour of it, " the Lord, their Judge, 
 their lawgiver, their king, He will save us;" the salvation, "the Lord 
 shall be to them as a broad moat of swift waters," &c. ; the condition of 
 their enemies, " their tacklings are loose, their masts weak, the lame shall 
 take the spoil of them ; " the condition of the saved, " the inhabitant shall 
 not say, I am sick: " and lastly, all this is comprehended in forgiveness of 
 sin. " the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." By 
 which it is evident, that salvation shall be on earth, then, when God shall 
 reign, at the coming again of Christ, in Jerusalem ; and from Jerusalem 
 shall proceed the salvation of the Gentiles that shall be received into Gods 
 kingdom : as is also more expressly declared by the same prophet (Isaiah 
 Ixvi. 20, 21), " And they (that is the Gentiles who had any Jew in bondage) 
 "shall bring all your brethren, for an offering to the Lord, out of all 
 nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and 
 upon swilt beasts, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the 
 children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the 
 Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the 
 Lord." Whereby it is manifest, that the chief seat of God's kingdom, 
 which is the place from whence the salvation of us that were Gentiles shall 
 proceed, shall be Jerusalem : and the same is also confirmed by our Saviour 
 in His discourse with the woman of Samaria, concerning the place of God's 
 worship ; to whom He saith (John iv. 22), that the Samaritans worshipped 
 they knew not what, but the Jews worshipped what they knew, "for salva- 
 tion is of the Jews " {ex Judais, that is, begins at the Jews) : as if He should 
 say, you worship God, but know not by whom He will save you, as we do, 
 that know it shall be by one of the tribe of Judah ; a Jew, not a Samarilan. 
 And therefore also the woman not impertinently answered Him again, " We 
 know the Messias shall come." So that which our Saviour saith, " Salva- 
 tion is from the Jews," is the same that Paul says (Rom. i. 16, 17), "The 
 gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth : to the 
 Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God 
 revealed from faith to faith ;" from the faith of the Jew to the faith of the 
 Genlile. In the like sense the prophet Joel describing the day of Judgment 
 (chap. ii. 50, 31), that God would " show wonders in heaven, and in earth, 
 blood and fire, and pillars of smoke ; the sun shall be turned to darkness, and 
 the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come ; " 
 he addeth (verse 32), " and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call 
 upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in 
 Jerusalem shall be salvation." And Obadiah (verse 17) saith the same: 
 "Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance ; and there shall be holiness, and 
 the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions," that is the possessions 
 of the " heathen," which " possessions " he expresseth more particularly in 
 the following verses, by the Mount of Esau, the land of the Philistines, 
 the fields of Ephraim, of Samaria, Gilead, and the cities of the south ; 
 and concludes with these words, " the kingdom shall be the Lord's." All 
 these places are for salvation and the kingdom of God, after the day of 
 judgment upon earth. On the-other side, I have not found any text that can 
 probably be drawn to prove any ascension of the saints into heaven ; that 
 is to say, into any cmlwn empyrmm, or other ethereal region, saving that it 
 is called the kingdom of Heaven : which name it may have, because God, 
 that was King of the Jews, governed them by His commands, sent to Moses 
 by angels from heaven ; and after the revolt, sent His Son from heaven to 
 reduce them to their obedience ; and shall send Him thence again to rule 
 both them and all other faithful men, from the day of judgmeut, everlasting; 
 
210 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 or from Ihat, that the throne of this our great King is in heaven ; vvhere^ 
 the earth is but His footstool. But that the subjects of God should have 
 any place as high as His throne, or higher tlian His footstool, it seemeth 
 not suitable to the dignity of a king, nor can I find any evident text for it 
 in Holy Scripture. 
 
 From this that hath been said of the kingdom of God, and of salvation, 
 it is not hard to interpret vifhat \s meant by the " world to come." 'There 
 are three worlds mentioned in Scripture, the " old world," the "present 
 wo'ld," and the "world to come." Of the first, St. Peter speaks (2 Pet. 
 ii. 5), " If God spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth 
 person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood upon the world of 
 the ungodly," &c. So the " first world" was from Adam to the general 
 flood. Of the present world, our Saviour speaks (John xviii. 36), " My 
 kingdom is not of this world." For He came only to teach men the way 
 of salvation, and to renew the kingdom of His Father, by His doctrine. 
 Of the world to come, St. Peter speaks (2 Pet. iii. 13), " Nevertheless we 
 according to His promise look for new heavens, and a new earth." This is 
 that " world " wherein Christ, coming down from heaven in the clouds, 
 with great power and glory, shall send His angels, and shall gather together 
 His elect from the four winds, and from the uttermost parts of the earth, 
 and thenceforth reign over them under His Father, everlastingly. 
 
 " Salvation " of a sinner supposeth a precedent " redemption ; '' for he 
 that is once guilty of sin is obnoxious to the penalty of the same ; and must 
 pay, or some other for him, such a ransom as he that is offended, and has 
 him in his power, shall require. And seeing the person offended is 
 Almighty God, in whose power are all things ; such ransom Is to be paid 
 before salvation can be acquired, as God hath been pleased to require. By 
 this ransom is not intended a satisfaction for sin equivalent to the offence, 
 which no sinner for himself, nor righteous man, can ever be able to make 
 for another the damage a man does to another, he may make amends for by 
 restitution or recompense ; but sin cannot be taken away by recompense ; 
 for that were to make the liberty to sin a thing vendible. But sins may be 
 pardoned to the repentant, either gratis, or upon such penalty as God is 
 pleased to accept. That which God usually accepted in the Old Testament 
 was some sacrifice or oblation. To forgive sin is not an act of injustice, 
 though the punishment have been threatened. Even amongst men, though 
 the promise of good bind the promiser ; yet threats, that is to say, promises 
 of evil, bind them not, much less shall they bind God, who is infinitely 
 more merciful than men. Our Saviour Christ therefore to "redeem "us, 
 did not in that sense satisfy for the sins of men as that His death, of its 
 own virtue, could make it unjust in God to punish sinners with eternal 
 death ; but did make that sacrifice and oblation of himself at his first 
 coming, which God was pleased to require for the salvation at His second 
 coming, of such as in the meantime should repent and believe in Him. 
 And though this aict of our " redemption " be not always in Scripture called 
 ■■' " sacrifice," and " oblation," but sometimes a " price ; " yet by " price " 
 we are not to understand anything by the value whereof He could claim 
 right to a pardon for us from His offended Father ; but that price which 
 God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand. 
 
SIGNIFJCATION OF A CHURCH. 211 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Of the Signification in Scripture of the word Church. 
 
 The word Church (Ecclesia) signifleth in the books of Holy Scripture 
 divers things. Sometimes, though not often, it is taken for " God's 
 liouse," that is to say, for a temple wherein Christians assembled to per- 
 form holy duties publicly, as (l Cor. xiv. 34), "Let your women keep 
 silence in the Churches." But this is metaphorically put for the congrega- 
 tion there assembled, and hath been since used for the edifice itself, to dis- 
 tinguish between the temples of Christians and idolaters. The Temple of 
 Jerusalem was " God's house," and the house of prayer ; and so is any 
 edifice dedicated by Christians to the worship of Christ, " Christ's house ; " 
 and therefore the Greek fathers call it KupioKT), " the Lord's house ; " and 
 thence in our language it came to be called " kyrke " and " church." 
 
 Church, when not taken for a house, signilieth the same that ecclesia 
 signified in the Grecian commonwealth, that is to say, a congregation or an 
 assembly of citizens called forth to hear the magistrate speak unto them ; 
 and which in the commonwealth of Rome was called concio; as he that 
 spake was called ecclesiastes and concionator. And when they were called 
 forth by lawful authority (Acts xix. 39), it was Ecclesia legitima, a "lawful 
 Church, " fffofios iKKKriala. But when they were excited by tumultuous 
 and seditious clamour, then it was a confused Church, fKK\'ri<ria avyKe- 
 
 It is taken also sometimes for the men that have right to be of the con- 
 gregation though not actually assembled, that is to say, for the whole 
 multitude of Christian men, how far soever they be dispersed : as (Acts 
 viii. 3), ~where it is said that "Saul made havoc of the Church;" and in 
 this sense is Cluist said to be the head of the Church. And sometimes 
 for a certain part of Christians, as (Col. iv. 15), "Salute the Church that is 
 in his house." Sometimes also for the elect only, as (Eph. v. 27), "A 
 glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, holy, and without blemish ; " 
 which is meant of the " Church triumphant " or " Church to come." Some- 
 times, for a congregation assembled of professors of Christianity, whether 
 their profession be tnie or counterfeit, as it is understood (Matt, xviii. 1 7), 
 where it is said, "Tell it to the Church; and if he neglect to hear the 
 Church, lei him be to thee as a Gentile, or publican." 
 
 And in this last sense only it is that the "Church"' can be taken for 
 one person, that is to say, that it can be said to have power to will, to 
 pronounce, to command, to be obeyed, to make laws, or to do any other 
 action whatsoever. For without authority from a lawful congregation, 
 whatsoever act be done in a concourse of people, it is the particular act ot 
 eveiy one of those that were present, and gave their aid to the performance 
 of it, and not the act of them all in gross, as of one body, much less the 
 act of them that were absent, or, that being present, were not willing it 
 should be done. According to this sense, I define a " Church " to be " a 
 company of men professing Christian religion, united in the person of one 
 sovereign, at whose command they ought to assemble, and without whose 
 authority they ought not to assemble." And because in all commonwealths 
 that assembly, which is without warrant from the civil sovereign, is un- 
 lawful, that Church also which is assembled in any commonwealth that 
 hath forbidden them to assemble, is an unlawful assembly. 
 
 It foUoweth also that there is on earth no such universal Church, as all 
 Christians are bound to obey ; because there is no power on earth to which 
 
212 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 all other commonwealths are subject. There are Christians in the dominions 
 of several princes and states, but every one of them is subject to that com- 
 monwealth whereof he is himself a member ; and consequently, cannot be 
 subject to the commands ,of any other person. And therefore a Church, 
 such a one as is capable to command, to judge, absolve, condemn, or do any 
 other act, is the same thing with a civil commonwealth, consisting of 
 Christian men ; and is called a " civil state," for that the subjects of it are 
 " men ; " and a " Church," for that the subjects thereof are " Christians." 
 " Temporal" and "spiritual" government are but two words brought into 
 tlie world to make men see double, and mistake their "lawful sovereign." 
 It is true that the bodies of the faithful, after the resurrection, shall be not 
 only spiritual but eternal ; but in this life they are gross and corruptible. 
 There is therefore no other government in this life, neither of state, nor re- 
 ligion, but temporal ; nor teaching of any doctrine, lawful to any subject, 
 which the governor both of the state and of the religion forbiddeth to be 
 taught. And that governor must be one ; or else there must needs follow 
 faction and civil war in the commonwealth between the " Church " and 
 "State;" between "spiritualists" and " temporalists ; " between the 
 "sword of justice," and the "shield of faith :" and, which is more, in 
 every Christian man's own breast, between the "Christian" and the 
 ' ' man." The doctors of the Church are called pastors ; so also are civil 
 sovereigns. But if pastors be not subordinate one to another, so as that 
 there may be one chief pastor, men will be taught contrary doctrines, 
 whereof both may be, and one must be false. Who that one chief pastor 
 is, according to the law of Natuie, hath been already shown ; namely, that 
 it is the civil sovereign; and to whom the Scripture hath assigned that office 
 we shall see in the chapters following. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Of the Rights of the Kingdom of God, in Abraham, Moses, the High Priests, 
 and the Kings of Judah. 
 
 The father of the faithful, and first in the kingdom of God by covenant, 
 was Abraham. For with him was the covenant first made, wherein he 
 obliged himself and his seed after him, to acknowledge and obey the 
 commands of God ; not only such as he could take notice of (as moral 
 laws), by the light of Nature, but also such as God should in special 
 manner deliver to him by dreams and visions. For as to the moral law, they 
 were already obliged, and needed not have been contracted withal by pro- 
 mise of the land of Canaan. Nor was there any contract that could add to 
 or strengthen the obligation by which both they and all men else were bound 
 naturally to obey God Almighty : and therefore the covenant which 
 Abraham made with God was to take for the commandment of God, that 
 which in the name of God was commanded him in a dream or vision ; and to 
 deliver it to his family, and cause them to observe the same. 
 
 In this contract of God with Abraham we may observe three points of 
 important consequence in the government of God's people. First, that at 
 the making of this covenant, God spake only to Abraham ; and therefore 
 contracted not with any of his family, or seed, otherwise than as their wills, 
 which make the essence of all covenants, were before the contract involved 
 in the will of Abraham, who was therefore supposed to have had a lawfiil 
 power to make them perform all that he covenanted for them. According 
 whereunto (Gen. xviii. 18, 19), God saith, " All the nations of the earth 
 
RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 213 
 
 shall be blessed in him ; for I know him that he will command his children 
 and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord." 
 From whence may be concluded this first point, that they to whom God hath 
 not spoken immediately are to receive the positive commandments of God 
 from their sovereign, as the family and seed of Abraham did from Abraham 
 their father, and lord, and civil sovereign. And consequently in every com- 
 monwealth they who have no supernatural revelation to the contrary, ought 
 to obey the laws of their own sovereign in the external acts and profession of 
 religion. As for the inward " thought " and " belief" of men, which human 
 governors can take no notice of (for God only knoweth the heart), they are 
 not voluntary, nor the effect of the laws, but of the unrevealed will and of 
 the power of God, and consequently fall not under obligation. 
 
 From whence 'proceedeth another point, that it was not unlawful for 
 Abraham, when any of his subjects should pretend private vision or spirit, 
 or other revelation from God, for the countenancing of any doctrine which 
 Abraham should forbid, or when they followed or adhered to any such pre- 
 tender to punish them : and consequently that it is lawful now for the 
 sovereign to punish any man that shall oppose his private spirit against the 
 laws : for he hath the same place in the commonwealth that Abraham had 
 in his own family. 
 
 There ariseth also from the same a third point ; that as none but Abraham 
 in his family, so none but the sovereign in a Christian commonwealth can 
 take notice what is, or what is not, the word of God. For God spake only 
 to Abraham ; and it was he only that was able to know what God said, 
 and to interpret the same to his family ; and therefore also tliey that have 
 the place of Abraham in a commonwealth, are the only interpreters of what 
 God hath spoken. 
 
 The same covenant was renewed with Isaac, and afterwards with Jacob ; 
 but afterwards no more till the Israelites were freed from the Egyptians, 
 and arrived at the foot of Mount Sinai ; and then it was renewed by Moses 
 (as I have said before, chap, xxxv.), in such manner as they became from 
 that time forward the peculiar kingdom of God ; whose lieutenant was 
 Moses, for his own time ; and the succession to that office was settled 
 upon Aaron, and his heirs after him, to be to God a sacerdotal kingdom 
 for ever. 
 
 By this constitution a kingdom is acquired to God. But seeing Moses 
 had no authority to govern the Israelites, as a successor to the right of 
 Abraham, because he could not claim it by inheritance ; it appeareth not as 
 yet that the people were obliged to take him for God's lieutenant longer 
 than they believed that God spake unto him. And therefore his authority, 
 notwithstanding the covenant they made with God, depended yet merely 
 upon the opinion they had of his sanctity, and of the reality of his con- 
 ferences with God, and the verity of his miracles : which opinion coming lo 
 change, they were no more obliged to take anything for the law of God, 
 which he propounded to them in God's name. We are therefore to consider 
 what other ground there was of their obligation to obey him. For it could 
 not be the commandment of God tliat could oblige them ; because God 
 spake not to them immediately, but by the mediation of Moses himself ; 
 and our Saviour saith of himself (John v. 31), " If I bear witness of my- 
 self, my witness is not true ; " much less if Moses bear witness of himself, 
 especially in a claim of kingly power over God's people, ought his testimony 
 to be received. His authority therefore, as the authority of all other 
 princes, must be grounded on the consent of the people, and tlieir promise 
 to obey him. And so it was ; for " the people " (Exod. xx. 18, 19), " when 
 Ihey saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpets, 
 and the mountain smoking, removed, and stood afar off. And they said 
 
214 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 unto Moses, Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak 
 with us lest we die." Here was their promise of obedience ; and by this 
 it was they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto 
 them for the commandment of God. 
 
 And notwithstanding the covenant constituted a sacerdotal kingdom, that 
 is to say, a kingdom hereditary to Aaron ; yet that is to be understood of 
 the succession after Moses should be dead. For whosoever ordereth and 
 establisheth the policy, as first founder of a commonwealth, be it monarchy, 
 aristocracy, or democracy, must needs have sovereign power over the 
 people all the while he is doing of it. And that Moses had that power all 
 his own time is evidently affirmed in the Scripture. First in the text last 
 before cited, because the people promised obedience, not to Aaron, but to 
 him. Secondly (Exod xxiv. i, 2), "And God said imto Moses, Come up 
 unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the 
 elders of Israel. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but they 
 shall not come nigh, neither shall the people go up with him." By which 
 it is plain, that Moses, who was alone called up to God (and not Aaron, 
 nor the other priests, nor the seventy elders, nor the people who were 
 forbidden to come up), was alone he that represented to the Israelites the 
 person of God, that is to say, was their sole sovereign under God. And 
 though afterwards it be said (verses 9, 10), ' ' Then went up Moses and 
 Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw 
 the God of Israel, and there- was under his feet, as it were a paved 
 work of a sapphire stone," &c. ; yet this was, not till after Moses had been 
 with God before, and had brought to the people the words which God had 
 said to him. He only went for the business of the people; the others as 
 the nobles o( his retinue, were admitted for honour to that special grace, 
 which was not allowed to the people ; which was, as in the verse after 
 appeareth, to see God and live, _" God laid not his hand upon them, they 
 saw God and did eat and drink," that is, did live : but did not carry any 
 commandment from Him to the people. Again, it is everywhere said " the 
 Lord spake unto Moses," as in all other occasions of government, so also m 
 the ordering of the ceremonies of religion, contained in chapters xxv., xxvi., 
 xxvii., xxviii., xxix., xxx. and xxxi. of Exodus, and throughout Leviticus: 
 to Aaron seldom. The calf that Aaron made, Moses threw into the fire. 
 Lastly, the question of the authority of Aaron, by occasion of his and 
 Miriam's mutiny against Moses, was (Numb, xii.) judged by God himself 
 for Moses. So also in the question between Moses and the people, who 
 had the right of governing the people, when Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, 
 and two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly ' ' gathered themselves 
 together (Numb xvi. 3) against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto 
 them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, 
 every one of them, and the Lord is amongst them, why lift you up your- 
 selves above the congregation of the Lord ? " God caused the earth to 
 swallow Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, with their wives and children, alive, 
 and consumed those two hundred and fifty princes with fire. Therefore 
 neither Aaron, nor the people, nor any aristocracy of the chief princes of 
 the people, but Moses alone had next under God the sovereignty over tlie 
 Israelites : and that not only in causes of civil policy, but also of religion : 
 for Moses only spake with God, and therefore only could tell the people 
 what it was that God required at their hands. No man upon pain of death 
 might be so presumptuous as to approach the mountain where God talked 
 with Moses. " Thou shalt set bounds " (saith the Lord, Exod. xix, 12) "to 
 the people round about, and say. Take heed to yourselves that you go not 
 up into the mount, or touch the border of it ; whosoever toucheth the 
 mount shall surely be put to death." And again (verse 12), " Go down, 
 
RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 215 
 
 charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze." Out of 
 which we may conclude that whosoever in a Christian commonwealth 
 holdeth the place of Moses, is the sole messenger of God, and interpreter of 
 His commandments. And according hereunto, no man ought in the inter- 
 pretation of the Scripture to proceed further than the bounds which are set 
 by their several sovereigns. For the Scriptures, since God now speaketh 
 in them, are the Mount Sinai ; the bounds whereof are the laws of them 
 that represent God's person on earth. To look upon them, and therein to 
 behold the wondrous works of God and learn to fear Him, is allowed ; but 
 to interpret them, that is, to pry into what God saith to him whom he 
 appointeth to govern under him, and make themselves judges whether he 
 govern as God commandeth him or not, is to transgress the bounds God 
 halh set us, and to gaze upon God irreverently, 
 
 There was no prophet in the time of Moses, nor pretender to the 
 spirit of God, but such as Moses had approved and authorized. For there 
 were in his time but seventy men that are said to prophesy by the spirit 
 of God, and these were all of Moses his election ; concerning whom God 
 said to Moses (Numb. xi. 16), " Gather to me seventy of the elders of 
 Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people." To these 
 God imparted His spirit ; but it was not a different spirit from that of 
 Moses ; for it is said (verse 25), " God came down in a cloud, and took 
 of the spirit that was upon Moses, and gave it to the seventy elders." But 
 as I have shown before (chap, xxxvi.) by "spirit" is understood the 
 "mind;" so that the sense of the place is no other than this, that God 
 endued them with a mind conformable and subordinate to that of Moses, 
 that they might prophesy, that is to say, speak to the people in God's 
 name, in such manner, as to set forward, as ministers of Moses and by his 
 authority, such doctrine as was agreeable to Moses his doctrine. For they 
 were but ministers ; and when two of them prophesied in the camp, it was 
 thought a new and unlawful thing ; and as it is in verses 27 and 28 of the 
 same chapter, they were accused of it, and Joshua advised Moses to forbid 
 them, as not knowing that it was by Moses his spirit that they prophesied. By 
 which it is manifest that no subject ought to pretend to prophesy, or to the 
 spirit, in opposition to the doctrine established by him whom God hath set 
 in the place of Moses. 
 
 Aaron being dead, and after him also Moses, the kingdom, as being a 
 sacerdotal kingdom, descended by virtue of the covenant to Aaron's son, 
 Eleazar the high priest : and God declared him, next under himself, for 
 sovereign, at the same time that He appointed Joshua for the general of 
 their army. For thus God saith expressly (Numb, xxvii. 21) concerning 
 Joshua : " He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel 
 for him before the Lord ; at his word shall they go out, and at his word 
 they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him. " There- 
 fore the supreme power of making war and peace was in the priest. The 
 supreme power of judicature belonged also to the high priest : for the Book 
 of the Law was in their keeping ; and the priests and Levites only were the 
 subordinate judges in causes civil, as appears in Deut. xvii. 8, 9, 10. And 
 for the manner of God's worship, there was never doubt made but that the 
 high priest till the time of Saul had the supreme authority. Therefore the 
 civil and ecclsiastical power were both joined together in one and the same 
 person, the high priest ; and ought to be so, in whosoever govemeth by 
 divine right, that is, by authority immediate from God. 
 
 After the death of Joshua, till the time of Saul, the time between is noted 
 frequently in the Book of Judges, " That there was in those days no king 
 in Israel;" and sometimes with this addition, that "every man did that 
 which was right in his own eyes." By which is to be understood that 
 
216 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 where it is said, " there was no kiny," is meant, " there was no sovere'gn 
 power " in Israel. And so it was, if we consider the act and exercise of 
 such power. For after the death of Joshua and Eleazar, "there arose 
 another generation (Judges ii. lo, 1 1 ) that knew not the Lord, nor the 
 works which He had done for Israel, but did evil in the sight of the 
 Lord, and served Baalim." And the Jews had that quality which St. Paul 
 noteth, " to look for a sign," not only before they would submit themselves 
 to the government of Moses, but also after they had obliged themselves by 
 their submission. Whereas signs and miracles had for end to procure faith, 
 not to keep men from violating it, when ihey have once* given it ; for to 
 that men are obliged by the law of Nature. But if we consider not the 
 exercise, but the right of governing, the sovereign power was still in the 
 high priest. Therefore whatsoever obedience w'as yielded to any of the 
 judges, who were men chosen by God extraordinarily to save His rebellious 
 subjects out of the hands of the enemy, it cannot be drawn into argument 
 against the right the high priest had to the sovereign power, in all matters 
 both of policy and religion. And neither the judges nor Samuel himself 
 had an ordinary, but an extraordinaiy calling to the government ; and were 
 obeyed by the Israelites, not out of duty, but out of reverence to their favour 
 with God, appearing in their wisdom, courage, or felicity. Hitherto 
 therefore the right of regulating both the policy and the religion were 
 inseparable. 
 
 To the judges succeeded kings : and whereas before, all authority, both 
 in religion and policy, was in the high priest ; so now it was all in the king. 
 For the sovereignty over the people, which was before, not only by virtue 
 of the divine power, but also by a particular pact of the Israelites, in God, 
 and next under Him, in the high priest, as His vicegerent on earth, was 
 cast off by the people, with the consent of God himself. P'or when they 
 said to Samuel (l Sam. viii. 5), " Make us a king to judge us like all the 
 nations," they signified that they would no more be governed by the com- 
 mands that should be laid upon them by the priest, in the name of God : 
 but by one that should command them in the same manner that all other 
 nations were commanded ; and consequently in deposing the high piiest of 
 royal authority, they deposed that peculiar government of God. And yet 
 God consented to it, saying to Samuel (i Sam. viii. 7), "Hearken unto 
 the voice of the people, in all that they shall say unto thee ; for they have 
 not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over 
 them." Having therefore rejected God, in whose right the priests governed, 
 there was no authority left to the priests, but such as the king was pleased 
 to allow them ; which was more or less, according as the kings were good 
 or evil. And for the government of civil affairs, it is manifest it was all in 
 the hands of the king. For in the same chapter (verse 20) they say, " they 
 will be like all the nations ; that their king shall be their judge, and go 
 before them, and fight their battles;" that is, he shall have the whole 
 authority both in peace and war. In which is contained also the ordering 
 of religion : for there was no other word of God in that time, by which to 
 regulate religion but the law of Moses, which was their civil law. Besides, 
 we read (i Kings ii. 27), that " Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being 
 priest before the Lord : " he had therefore authority over ;he high priest, 
 as over any other subject; which is a great mark of supremacy in 
 religion. And we read also (i Kings viii.), 3iat he dedicated the temple ; 
 that he blessed the people ; and that he himself in person made that 
 excellent prayer, used in the consecration of all churches and houses of 
 prayer ; which is another great mark of supremacy in religion. Again, we 
 read (2 Kings xxii. ), that when there was question concerning the Book of 
 the Law found in the temple, the same was not decided by the high priest, 
 
RIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 217 
 
 but Josiah sent both him and others to inquire concerning it of Huldah, the 
 prophetess ; which is another marlc of supremacy in religion. Lastly, we 
 read ( I Chron. xxvi. 30), that David made Hashabiah and his breihren, 
 Hebronites, officers o( Israel among them westward, ' ' in all their business 
 of the Lord, and in the service of the king." Likewise (verse 32) that he 
 made other Hebronites "rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the 
 half tribe of Manasseh " (these were the rest of Israel that dwelt beyond 
 Jordan), "for every matter pertaining to God, and affairs of the king." 
 Is not this full power, both " temporal " and " spiritual," as they call it 
 that would divide it ? To conclude ; from the first institution of God's 
 kingdom to the captivity, the supremacy of religion was in the same hand 
 witli that of the civil sovereignty ; and the priest's office after the election of 
 Saul, was riot magisterial but ministerial. 
 
 Notwithstanding the government both in policy and religion, were joined, 
 first in the high priests, and afterwards in the kings, so far forth as con- 
 cerned the right ; yet it appeareth by the same holy history, that the 
 people understood it not : but there being amongst them a great part, and 
 probably the greatest part, that no longer than they saw great miracles, or, 
 what is equivalent to a miracle, great abilities, or great felicity in the enter- 
 prises of their governors, gave sufficient credit either to the fame of Moses 
 or to the colloquies between God and the priests ; they took occasion as oft 
 as their governors displeased them, by blaming sometimes the policy, some- 
 times the religion, to change the government or revolt from their obedience 
 at their pleasure : and from thence proceeded from time to time the civil 
 troubles, divisions, and calamities of the nation. As for example, after the 
 death of Eleazar and Joshua, the next generation which had not seen the 
 wonders of God, but were left to their own weak reason, not knowing 
 themselves obliged by the covenant of a sacerdotal kingdom, regarded no 
 more the commandment of the priest nor any law of Moses, but did every 
 man that which was right in his own eyes, and obeyed in civil affairs such 
 men as from time to time they thought able to deliver them from the 
 neighbour nations that oppressed them ; and consulted not with God, as 
 they ought to do, but with such men or women as they guessed to be 
 prophets by their predictions of things to come ; and though they had an 
 idol in their chapel, yet if they had a Levite for their chaplain, they made 
 account they worshipped the God of Israel. 
 
 And afterwards when they demanded a king after the manner of the 
 nations ; yet it was not with a design to depart from the worship of God 
 their king ; but despairing of the justice of the sons of Samuel, they would 
 have a king to judge them in civil actions ; but not that they would allow 
 their king to change the religion which they thought was recommended to 
 them by Moses. So that they always kept in store a pretext, either of 
 justice or religion, to discharge themselves of their obedience, whensoever 
 they had hope to prevail. Samuel was displeased with the people, for that 
 they desired a king ; for God was their king already, and Samuel had but 
 an authority under Him ; yet did Samuel, when Saul observed not his 
 counsel, in destroying Agag as God had commanded, anoint another king, 
 namely David, to take the succession from his heirs. Rehoboam was no 
 idolater ; but when the people thought him an oppressor, that civil pretence 
 carried from him ten tribes to Jeroboam an idolater. And generally 
 through the whole history of the kings, as well of Judah as of Israel, there 
 were prophets that always controlled the kings, for transgressing the 
 religion ; and sometimes also for errors of state ; as Jehosaphat was re- 
 proved (2 Chron. xix. 2) by the prophet Jehu, for aiding the king of Israel 
 against the Syrians ; and Hezekiah, by Isaiah (xxxix. 3-7), for showing his 
 treasures to th? ambassadors of Babylon. By all which it appeareth, that 
 
2i8 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 though the power both of state and religion were in the kings ; yet none o( 
 them were uncontrolled in the use of it, but such as were gracious for their 
 own natural abilities or felicities. So that from tlie practice of those times, 
 there can no argument be drawn, that the right of supremacy in religion 
 was not in the kings, unless we place it in the prophets, and conclude that 
 because Hezekiah praying to the Lord before the cherubims, was not an- 
 swered from thence, nor then, but afterwards by the prophet Isaiali, there- 
 fore Isaiah was supreme head of the Church ; or because Josiafa consulted 
 Huldah the prophetess, concerning the Book of the Law, that therefore 
 neither he nor the high priest, but Huldah the prophetess, had the supreme 
 authority in matter of religion ; which I think is not the opinion of any 
 doctor. 
 
 During the captivity, the Jews had no commonwealth at all : and after 
 their return, though they renewed their covenant with God, yet there was 
 no promise made of obedience, neither to Esdras, nor to any other : and 
 presently after, they became subjects to the Greeks, from whose customs 
 and demonology, and from the doctrine of the Cabalists, their religion be- 
 came much corrupted : in such sort as nothing can be gathered from their 
 confusion, both in state and religion, concerning the supremacy in either. 
 And therefore so far forth as concerneth the Old Testament, we may con- 
 clude that whosoever had the sovereignty of the commonwealth amongst 
 the Jews, the same had also the supreme authority in matter of God's 
 external worship, and represented God's person ; that is, the person of God 
 the Father; though he were not called by the name of Father, till such 
 time as He sent into the world His Son Jesus Christ, to redeem mankind 
 from their sins, and bring them into His everlasting kingdom, to be saved 
 for evermore. Of which we are to speak in the chapter following. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Of the Office of Our Blessed Saviour. 
 
 We find in Holy Scripture three parts of the office of the Messiah ■. the 
 first of a " Redeemer '* or " Saviour ; " the second of a " pastor," "coun- 
 sellor," or "teacher," that is, of a prophet sent from God to convert such 
 as God hath elected to salvation: the third of a " king," an " eternal king," 
 but under His Father, as Moses and the high priests were in their several 
 times. And to these three parts are correspondent three times. For our 
 redemption He wrought at His first coming, by the sacrifice wherein He 
 offered up himself for our sins upon the cross : our conversion He wTOUght 
 partly then in His own person, and partly worketh now by His ministers, 
 and will continue to work till His coming again. And after His coming 
 again, shall begin that His glorious reign over His elect, which is to last 
 eternally. 
 
 To the office of a Redeemer, that is, of one that payeth the ransom of 
 sin, which ransom is death, it appertaineth, that He was sacrificed, and 
 thereby bare upon His ovpn head and carried away from us our iniquities, 
 in such sort as God had required. Not that the death of one man, though 
 without sin, can satisfy for the oiTences of all men, in t^le rigour of justice, 
 . but in the mercy of God, that ordained such sacrifices for sin, as He was 
 pleased in His mfeicy to accept. In the old law (as we may read, Levit. 
 xvi.) the Lord required that there should, every year once, be made an 
 atonement for the sins of all Israel, both priests and others ; for the doing 
 
THE OFFICE OF OUR SAVIOUR. 219 
 
 whereof, Aaron alone was to sacrifice for himself and the priests a young 
 bullock ; and for the rest of the people he was to receive from them two 
 young goats, of which he was to " sacrifice " one ; but as for the other, 
 which was the " scape-goat," he was to lay his hands on the head thereof, 
 and by a confession of the iniquities of ihe people, to lay them all on that 
 head, and then by some opportune man, to cause the goat to be led into 
 the wilderness, and thereto "escape," and carry away with iiini the 
 iniquities of the people. As the sacrifice of the one goat was a sufficient, 
 because an acceptable, price for the ransom of all Israel ; so the death of 
 the Messiah is a sufficient price for the sins of all mankind, because there 
 was no more required. Our Saviour Christ's sufferings seem to be here 
 figured, as clearly as in the oblation of Isaac, or in any other type of Him 
 in the Old Testament. He was both the sacrificed goat, and the scape- 
 goat ; " He was oppressed, and He was afflicted (Isaiah liii. 7) ; Ho 
 opened not His mouth ; lie is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a 
 sheep is dumb before the shearer, so He opened not His mouth : " here He 
 is the " sacrificed goat." " He hath borne our griefs (vei-se 4), and carried 
 our son-ows ;" and again (veise 6), "the Lord hath laid upon Him the 
 iniquities of us all : " and so He is the " scape-goat." "He was cut off from 
 the land of the living (verse 8) for the transgression of my people : " there 
 again He is the "sacrificed goat." And again (verse II), " He shall bear 
 their sins : " He is the " scapegoat." Thus is the Lamb of God equivalent 
 to both those goats ; sacrificed, in that He died ; and escaping, in His 
 resuiTCction ; being raised opportunely by His Father, and removed from 
 the habitation of men in His ascension. 
 
 For as much therefore as he that "redeemeth" hath no title to the 
 " thing redeemed," before " the redemption " and ransom paid ; and this 
 ransom was the death of the Redeemer ; it is manifest that our Saviour, as 
 man, was not king of those that He redeemed before He suffered death ; 
 that is, during that time He conversed bodily on the earth. I say. He was 
 not then king in present, by virtue of the pact, which the faithful make 
 widi Him in baptism. Nevertheless, by the renewing of their pact with 
 God in baptism, they were obliged to obey Him for king, under His 
 Father, whensoever He should be pleased to take the kingdom upon Him. 
 According whereunto, our Saviour himself expressly saith (John xviii. 36), 
 " My kingdom is not of this world." Now seeing the Scripture raaketh 
 mention but of two worlds ; this that is now, and shall remain unto the day of 
 judgment, which is therefore also called the " last day ; " and that which 
 shall be after the day of judgment, when there shall be a new heaven and 
 a new earth : the kingdom of Christ is not to begin till the general resur- 
 rection. And that is it which our Saviour saith (Matt. xvi. 27), " The Son 
 of man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His angels ; and then 
 He shall reward every man according to his works." To reward every 
 man according to his works is to execute the office of a king ; and this is 
 not to be till He come in the glory of His Father, with His angels. When 
 our Saviour saith (Matt, xxiii. z, 3), "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in 
 Moses' seat ; all therefore whatsoever they bid you do, that observe and 
 do ; " He declared plainly, that He ascribed kingly power, for that time, 
 not to himself, but to them. And so He doth also, where He saith (Luke 
 xii. 14), "Who made me a judge or divider over you?" And (John 
 xii. 47), "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. " Arid yet 
 our Saviour came into thii world that He might be a king and a judge 
 in the world to come : for He was the Messiah, that is, the Christ, that is, 
 the anointed priest, and the sovereign prophet of God ; that is to say, He 
 was to have all the power that was in Moses the prophet, in the high priests 
 liiat succeed^ Moses, and in the kings that succeeded the priests. And 
 
220 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 St. John says expressly (chap. v. verse 22), "the Father judgeth no 
 man, but hath committed judgment to the Son." And this is not repug- 
 nant to that other place, " I came not to judge the world : " for this is 
 spoken of the world present, the other of the world to come ; as also 
 where it is said that at the second coming of Christ (Matt. xix. 28), '|Ye 
 that have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in 
 the throne of His glory, ye shall also sit on twelve thrones, judging the 
 twelve tribes of Israel." 
 
 If then Christ, whilst He was on earth, had no kingdom in this world, to 
 what end was His first coming ? It was to restore unto God by a new 
 covenant, the kingdom, which being His by the old covenant, had been cut 
 off by the rebellion of the Israelites in the election of Saul. Which to do. 
 He was to preach unto them that He was the Messiah, that is, the king 
 promised to them by the prophets ; and to offer himself in sacrifice /or the 
 sins of them that should by faith submit themselves thereto ; and in case the 
 nation generally should refuse Him, to call to His obedience such as should 
 believe in Him amongst the Gentiles. So that there are two parts of our 
 Saviour's office during His abode upon the earth ; one to proclaim himself 
 the Christ, and another by teaching and by working of miracles, to persuade 
 and prepare men to live so as to be worthy of the immortality believers were 
 to enjoy, at such time as He should come in majesty to take possession of 
 His Father's kingdom. And therefore it is that the time of His preaching 
 is often by himself called the " regeneration ; " which is not properly 
 a kingdom, and thereby a warrant to deny obedience to the magistrates that 
 tlien were ; for He commanded to obey those that sit then in Moses' chair, 
 and to pay tribute to Csesar, but only an earnest of the kingdom of God that 
 was to come, to those to whom God had given the grace to be His disciples, 
 and to believe in Him ; for which cause the godly are said to be already in 
 the " kingdom of grace," as naturalized in that heavenly kingdom. 
 
 Hitherto, therefore, there is nothing done or taught by Christ that tendeth 
 to the diminution of the civil right of the Jews or of Csesar. For as 
 touching the commonwealth which then was amongst the Jews, both they 
 that bare rule amongst them, and they that were governed, did all expect 
 the Messiah and kingdom of God ; which they could not have done if their 
 laws had forbidden Him; when He came, to manifest and declare himself. 
 Seeing therefore He did nothing but by preaching and miracles go about to 
 prove himself to be that Messiah, He did therein nothing against their 
 laws. The kingdom He claimed was to be in another world : He taught all 
 men to obey in the meantime them that sat in Moses' seat : He allowed 
 them to give Caesar his tribute, and refused to take upon himself to be a 
 judge. How then could His words or actions be seditious, or tend to the 
 overthrow of their then civil government? But God having determined 
 Ilis sacrifice for the reduction of His elect to their former covenanted 
 obedience, for the means, whereby He would bring the same to effect, made 
 use of their malice and ingratitude. Nor was it contrary to the laws of 
 Caesar. For though Pilate himself, to gratify the Jews, delivered Him to 
 be crucified ; yet before he did so he pronounced openly that he found no 
 fault in Him : and put for title of His condemnation, not as the Jews 
 required, " that He pretended to be king ;" but simply, " that He was king 
 of the Jews ;" and notwithstanding their clamour, refused to alter it ; 
 saying, "What I have written, I have written." 
 
 As for the third part of His office, which was to be "king," I have 
 already shown that His kingdom was not to begin till the resurrection. 
 But then He shall be king, not only as God, in which sense He is king 
 already, and ever shall be, of all the earth, in virtue of His omnipotence ; 
 but also peculiarly of His own elect, by virtue of the pact they make with 
 
THE OFFICE OF OUR SAVIOUR. 221 
 
 Him in their baptism. And therefore it is that our Saviour saith (Matt. xix. 
 28) that His apostles should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tiibes 
 of Israel, " When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory : " 
 whereby He signified that He should reign then in His human nature ; 
 and Matt. (xvi. 27), " The Son of man shall come in the glory of His 
 l'"ather, with His angels, and then He shall reward every man according 
 to his works." The same we may read (Mark xiii. 26, and xiv. 62) ; and 
 more expressly for the time (Luke xxii. 29, 30), " I appoint unto you a king- 
 dom, as my Father hath appointed to me, that you may eat and drink at 
 my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel." By which it is manifest that the kingdom of Christ appointed- to 
 Him by His Father is not to be before the Son of man shall come in glory, 
 and make His apostles judges of the twelve tribes of Israel. But a man 
 may here ask, seeing there is no marriage in the kingdom of heaven, whether 
 men shall then eat and drink ? What eating therefore is meant in this place ? 
 This is expounded by our Saviour (John vi. 27), where He saith, " Labour 
 not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto 
 everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you." So that by eating 
 at Christ's table is meant the eating of the tree of life ; that is to say, the 
 enjoying of immortality, in the kingdom of the Son of man. By which 
 places and many more, it is evident that our Saviour's kingdom is to be 
 exercised by Him in His human nature. 
 
 Again, He is to be king then, no otherwise than as subordinate or vice- 
 gerent of God the Father, as Moses was in the wilderness ; and as the high 
 priests were before the reign of Saul ; and as the kings were after it. For 
 it is one of the prophecies concerning Christ, that He should be like, in 
 office, to Moses : " I will raise them up a prophet," saith the Lord (Deut. 
 xviii. 18), "from amongst their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my 
 words into his mouth ; " and this similitude with Moses is also apparent in 
 the actions of our Saviour himself, whilst He was conversant on earth. 
 For as Moses chose twelve princes of the tribes to govern under him ; so 
 did our Saviour choose twelve apostles, who shall sit on twelve thrones, and 
 judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And as Moses authorized seventy elders 
 to receive the Spirit of God, and to prophesy to the people, that is, as I 
 have said before, to speak unto them in the name of God ; so our Saviour 
 also ordained seventy disciples to preach His kingdom and salvation to all 
 nations. And as when a complaint was made to Moses against those of the 
 seventy that prophesied in the camp of Israel, he justified them in it, as 
 being subservient therein to his government ; so also our Saviour, when 
 St. John complained to Him of a certain man that cast out devils in His 
 name, justified him therein, saying (Luke ix. 50), " Forbid him not, for he 
 that is not against us, is on our part." 
 
 Again, our Saviour resembled Moses in the institution of "sacraments," 
 both of " admission " into the kingdom of God, and of " commemoration " 
 of his deliverance of His elect from their miserable condition. As the 
 children of Israel had for sacrament of their reception into the kingdom of 
 God, before the time of Moses, the rite of " circumcision," which rite 
 having been omitted in the wilderness, was again restored as soon as they 
 came into the Land of Promise ; so also the Jews, before the coming of 
 our Saviour, had a rite of" baptizing," that is, of washing with water all 
 those that being Gentiles embraced the God of Israel. This rite St. John 
 the Baptist used in the reception of all them that gave their names to the 
 Christ, whom he preached to be already come into the world ; and our 
 Saviour instituted the same for a sacrament to be taken by all that believed 
 in Him. From what cause the rite of baptism first proceeded, is not 
 expressed formally in the Scripture ; but it may be probably thought to be 
 
222 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 an imitation of the law of Moses concerning leprosy ; wherein the leprous 
 man was commanded to be kept out of the camp of Israel for a certain 
 time ; after which time being judged by the priest to be clean, he was 
 admitted into the camp after a solemn washing. And this may therefore be 
 a type of the washing in baptism ; wherein such men as are cleansed ef-the 
 leprosy of sin by faith,, are received into the. Church with the' solemnity of 
 baptism. There is another conjecture, drawn from the cerenVonies of llie 
 Gentiles, in a certain case that rarely happens : and that is, when a man 
 that was thought dead chanced to recover, other men made scruple to 
 converse with him, as they would do to converse with a ghost, unless he 
 were received again into the number of men by washing, as children new- 
 born were washed from the uncleanness of their nativity ; which was a kind 
 of new birth. This ceremony of the Greeks, in the time that Judaea was 
 under the dominion of Alexander and the Greeks his successors,- may 
 probably enough have crept into the religion of the Jews. But seeing it is 
 not likely our Saviour would countenance a heathen rite, it is most likely 
 it proceeded from the legal ceremony of washing after leprosy. And for 
 the other sacrament of eating the "Paschal lamb," it is manifestly imitated 
 in the sacrament of the "Lord's Sapper ; " in which the breaking of the 
 bread, and the pouring out of the wine, do keep in memory our deliverance 
 from the misery of sin, by Clrrist's passion, as the eating of the Paschal 
 lamb kept in memory the deliverance of the Jews out of the bondage of 
 Egypt. Seeing therefore the authority of Moses was but subordinate, and 
 he but a lieutenant of God ; it followeth that Christ, whose authority as 
 man was to be like that of Moses, was no more but subordinate to the 
 authority of his Father. The same is more expressly signified, by that that 
 He teacheth us to pray, " Our Father, let thy kingdom come ;" and " For 
 thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory ;" and by that it is said, that 
 " He shall come in the glory of His Father ;" and by that which St. Paul 
 saith (i Cor. xv. 24), " then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered 
 up the kingdom to God, even the Father ;" and by many other most 
 express places. 
 
 Our Saviour, therefore, both in teaching and reigning, representeth, as 
 Moses did, the person of God ; which God from that time forward, but not 
 before, is called the Father ; and being still one and the same substance, is 
 one person as represented by Moses, and another person as represented by 
 His Son the Christ. For " person " being a relative to a " representer," it 
 is consequent to plurality of representers, that there be a plurality of persons, 
 though of one and the same substance. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Of Power Ecclesiastical. 
 
 For the understanding of " power ecclesiastical," what, and in whom it is, 
 we are to distinguish the time from the ascension of our Saviour into two 
 parts ; one before the conversion of kings, and men endued with 
 sovereign civil power ; the other after their conversion. For it was long 
 after the ascension, before any king or civil sovereign embraced and publicly 
 allowed the teaching of Christian religion. 
 
 And for the time between, it is manifest that the " power ecclesiastical " 
 was in the apostles ; and after them in such as were by them ordained to 
 preach the Gospel, and to convert men to Christianity, and to direct them 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 223 
 
 that were converted in the way of salvation ; and after these, the power was 
 delivered again to others by these ordained, and this was done by imposition 
 of hands upon such as were ordained ; by which was signified the giving of 
 the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God, to those whom they ordained ministers of 
 God, to advance His kingdom. So that imposition of hands was nothing 
 else but the seal of their commission to preach Christ.'and teach His 
 doctrine ; and the giving of the Holy Ghost by that ceremony of imposition 
 of hands, was an imitation of that which Moses did. For Moses used the 
 same ceremony to his minister Joshua, as we read (Deut. xxxiv. 9), " And 
 Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid 
 his hands upon him." Our Saviour therefore, between His resurrection and 
 ascension, gave His spirit to the apostles ; first, by " breathing on them, and 
 saying " (John xx. 2z), " Receive ye the Holy Spirit ; " and after His as- 
 cension (Acts ii. 2, 3), by sending down upon them " a mighty wind, and 
 cloven tongues of fire ; " and not by imposition of hands, as neither did 
 God lay His hands on Moses ; and His apostles afterwards transmitted the 
 same spirit by imposition of hands as Moses did to Joshua. So that it is 
 manifest hereby in whom the power ecclesiastical continually remained, in 
 those first times where there was not any Christian commonwealth ; namely, 
 in them that received the same from the apostles, by successive laying on of 
 hands. 
 
 Here we have the person of God born now the third time. For as Moses 
 and tlie high priests were God's representative in the Old Testament ; and 
 our Saviour himself, as man, during his abode on earth ; so the Holy Ghost, 
 that is to say, the apostles and their successors, in the office of preaching and 
 teaching that had received the Holy Spirit, have represented him ever 
 since. But a person, as I have shown before (chap, xiii.), is he that is 
 represented, as often as he is represented ; and therefore God, who has been 
 represented, that is personated, thrice, may properly enough be said to be 
 three persons ; though neither the word " Person," nor " Trihity," be 
 ascribed to him in the Bible. St. John, indeed (l Epist. v. 7) saith, 
 ''There be three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and 
 the Holy Spirit ; aiid these three are One." But this disagreeth not, but 
 accordeth fitly with three persons in the proper signification of persons ; 
 which is that which is represented by another. For so God the Father, as 
 represented by Moses, is one person ; and as represented by His Son, 
 another person ; and as represented by the apostles, and by the doctors 
 that taught by authority from them derived, is a third person ; and yet every 
 person here, is the person of one and the same God. But a man may here 
 ask, what it was whereof these three bear witness. St. John therefore 
 tells us (verse 11) that they bear witness that " God hath given us eternal 
 life in His Son." Again, if it should be asked, wherein that testimony 
 appeareth, the answer is easy ; for He hath testified the same by the miracles 
 He wrought, first by Moses; secondly, by His Son himself : and lastly by His 
 apostles that had received the Holy Spirit ; all which in their times repre- 
 sented the person of God, and either prophesied or preached Jesus Christ. 
 And as for the apostles, it was the character of the apostleship, in the 
 twelve first and great apostles, to bear witness of His resurrection ; as 
 appeareth expressly (Acts i. 21, 22), where St. Peter, when a new apostle 
 was to be chosen in the place of Judas Iscariot, useth these wor-ls, "Of 
 these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus 
 went in and out amongst us, beginning at the baptism of John, unto that 
 same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a wit- 
 ness with us of His resurrection :" which words interpret the "bearing of 
 witness" mentioned by St. John. There is in the same place mentioned 
 another Trinty of witnesses in earth. For (I John v. 8) he saith, " there are 
 
224 OF A CHRTSTIAM COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, 
 and these three agree in one :" that is to say, the graces of God's spirit, and 
 the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, which all agree in one 
 testimony to assure the consciences of believers of eternal life ; of which 
 testimony he saith (verse lo), "He that believeth on the Son of man hath 
 the witness in himself." In this Trinity on earth, the unity is not of the 
 thing ; for the Spirit, the water, and the blood, are not the same substance, 
 though they give the same testimony : but in the Trinity of heaven, the per- 
 sons are the persons of one and the same God, though represented in three 
 different times and occasions. To conclude, the doctrine of the Trinity, as 
 far as can be gathered directly from the Scripture, is in substance this, that 
 the God who is always one and the same, was the person represented by 
 Moses ; the person represented by his Son incarnate ; and the person repre- 
 sented by the apostles. As represented by the apostles, the Holy Spirit, 
 by which they spake, is God ; as represented by His Son that was God and 
 man, the Son is that God ; as represented by iVIoses and the high priests, 
 the Father, that is to say, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that God. 
 From whence we may gather the reason why those names "Father," 
 "Son," and " Holy Spirit," in the signification of the Godhead, are never 
 used in the Old Testament : for they are persons, that is, they have their 
 names from representing ; which could not be, till divers men had repre- 
 sented God's person in ruling or in directing under Him. 
 
 Thus we see how the power ecclesiastical was left by our Saviour to the 
 apostles ; and how they were, to the end they might the better exercise 
 that power, endued with the Holy Spirit, which is therefore called some- 
 times in the New Testament paracletus, which signifieth an " assister," or 
 one called to for help, though it be commonly translated a "comforter." 
 Let us now consider the power itself, what it was, and over whom. 
 
 Cardinal Bellarmine, in his third general controversy, hath handled a 
 great many questions concerning the ecclesiastical power of the Pope of 
 Rome ; and begins with this, whether it ought to be monarchical, arislo- 
 cratical, or democratical : all which sorts of power are sovereign and coer- 
 cive. If now it should appear that there is no coercive power left them by 
 our Saviour, but only a power to proclaim the kingdom of Christ, and to 
 persuade men to submit themselves thereunto, and by precepts and good 
 counsel to teach them that have submitted wliat they are to do that they 
 may be received into the kingdom of God when it comes ; and that the 
 apostles and other ministers of the Gospel are our schoolmasters, and not 
 our commanders, and their precepts not laws but wholesome counsels : then 
 were all that dispute in vain. 
 
 I have shown already, in the last chapter, that the kingdom of Christ is 
 not of this world : therefore neither can His ministers, unless they-be kings, 
 require obedience in His name. For if the supreme king have not his 
 regal power in this world, by what authority can obedience be required to 
 his officers? " As my Father sent me," so saith our Saviour (Johnxx. 2l), 
 "I send you." But our Saviour was sent to persuade the Jews to return 
 to, and to invite the Gentiles to receive, the kingdom of His Father, and 
 not to reign in majesty, no not as His Father's lieutenant, tiU the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 The time between the ascension and the general resurrection is called, 
 not a reigning, but a regeneration ; that is, a preparation of men for the 
 second and glorious coming of Christ at the day of judgment ; as appeareth 
 by the words of our Saviour (Matt. xix. 28), " You that have followed me 
 in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, 
 you shall also sit upon twelve thrones; " and of St. Paul (Ephes. vi. 15)1 
 " Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." 
 
OF POWER. ECCLESIASTICAL, 225 
 
 And is compared by our Saviour to fishing, that is, to winning men to 
 obedience, not by coercion and punishing, but by persuasion : and there- 
 fore Ho said not to His apostles He would make them so many Nimrods, 
 " hunters of men ; " but " fishers of men. " It is compared also to leaven, to 
 sowing of seed, and to the multiplication of a grain of mustard-seed ; by all 
 which compulsion is excluded ; and consequently there can in that time be 
 no actual reining. The work of Christ's ministers is evangelization \ that 
 is, a proclamation of Christ, and a preparation for His second coming, as 
 the evangelization of John the Baptist was a preparation to His first cominy;. 
 
 Again, the office of Christ's ministers in this world is to make moii 
 believe and have faith in Christ ; but faith hath no relation to nor depend- 
 ence at all upon compulsion or commandment ; but only upon certainty or 
 probability of arguments drawn from reason, or from something men believe 
 already. Therefore the ministers of Christ in this world have no power, by 
 that title, to punish any man for not believing or for contradicting what they 
 say ; they have, I say, no power by that title of Christ's ministers to punish 
 such ; but if they have £overeign civil power by politic institution, then 
 they may indeed lawfully punish any contradiction to their laws whatsoever : 
 and St. Paul, of himself and other the then preachers of the Gospel, saith in 
 express words (2 Cor. i. 24), " Wo have no dominion over your faith, but 
 are helpers of your joy. " 
 
 Another argument, that the ministers of Christ in this present world have 
 no right of commanding, may bs drawn from the lawful authority which 
 Christ hath left to all princes, as well Christians 23 infidels. St. Paul saith 
 (Col. ill. 20), " Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this is well 
 pleasing to the Lord ; " and (verse 20), " Servants, obey in all things your 
 masters according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but 
 in singleness of heart, as fearing the Lord ; " this is spoken to them whose 
 masters were infidels; and yet they are bidden to obey them "in all 
 things." And again, concerning obedience to princes (Rom. xiii., ihe fiist 
 six verses), exhorting "to be subject to the higher powers," he saith, "that 
 all power is ordained of God ; " and " that we ought to be subject to them, 
 not only for fear of incurring their wrath, but also for conscience sake." 
 And St. Peter (l Epistle ii. 13, 14, 15), " Submit yourselves to every ordi- 
 nance of man, for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme ; 
 or unto governors, as to them that be sent by him for the punishment of 
 evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well ; for so is the will 
 of God." And again St. Paul (Titus iii. i), " Put men in mind to be subject 
 to principalities and powers, and to obey magistrates." These princes and 
 powers, whereof St. Peter and St. Paul here speak, were all infidels : much 
 more therefore we are to observe those Christians, whom God hath ordained 
 to have sovereign power over us. How then can we be obliged to obey 
 any minister of Christ, if he should command us to do anything contrary to 
 the command of the king, or otlier sovereign representant of the common- 
 wealth whereof we are members, and by whom we look to be protected ? 
 It is therefore manifest that Christ hath not left to His ministers in this 
 world, unless they be also endued with civil authority, any authority to 
 command other men. 
 
 But what, may some object, if a king, or a senate, or other sovereign 
 person forbid us to believe in Christ? To this I answer that such 
 forbidding is of no effect ; because belief and unbelief never follow men s 
 commands. Faith is a gift of God, which man can neither give nor take 
 away by promise of rewards, or menaces of torture. And if it be further 
 asked, what if we be commanded by our lawful prince to say with our 
 tongue, we believe not ; must we obey such command ? Profession with 
 the tongue is but an external thing, and no more .than any other gesture 
 
226 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 whereby we signify our obedience ; and wherein a Christian, holding 
 firmly in his heart the faith of Chtist, hath the same liberty which the 
 prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian. Naamanwas converted in 
 his heart to the God of Israel ; for he saith (2 Kings v. 17, 18), "Thy 
 servant will henceforth offer neither bumt-ofiering nor sacrifice unto other 
 gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that 
 when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he 
 leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon : when I 
 bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in 
 this thing." This the prophet approved, and bid him "Go in peace." 
 Here Naaman believed in his heart ; but by bowing before the idol Rim- 
 mon, he denied the true God in effect, as much as if he had done it with 
 his lips. But then what shall we answer to our Saviour's saying (Matt. 
 X. 33), "Whosover denieth me before men, I will deny him before my 
 Father which is in heaven?" This we may say, that whatsoever a subject, as 
 Naaman was, is compelled to do in obedience to his sovereign, and doth it 
 not in order to his own mind, but in order to the laws of his country, that 
 action is not his, but his sovereign's ; nor is it he that in this case denieth 
 Christ before men, but his governor, and the law of his country. If any 
 man shall accuse this doctrine, as repugnant to true and unfeigned Chris- 
 tianity, I ask him, in case there should be a subject in any Christian com- 
 monwealth, that should be inwardly in his heart of the Mahomedan re- 
 ligion, whether if his sovereign command him to be present at the divine 
 service of the Christian church, and that on pain of death, he think that 
 Mahomedan obliged in conscience to suffer death for that cause, rather than 
 obey that command of his lawful prince. If he say, he ought rather to 
 suffer death, then he authorizeth all private men to disobey their princes in 
 maintenance of their religion, true or false ; if he say, he ought to be 
 obedient, then he alloweth to himself that which he denieth to another, 
 contrary to the words of our Saviour (Luke vi. 31), " Whatsoever you 
 would that men should do unto you, that do ye unto them ; " and contrary 
 to the law of Nature, which is the indubitable everlasting law of God, " Do 
 not to another, that which thou wouldest not he should do unto thee.'' 
 
 But what then shall we say of all those martyrs we read of in the history 
 of the Church, that they have needlessly cast away their lives ? For answer 
 hereunto, we are to distinguish the persons that have been for that cause 
 put to death : whereof some have received a calling to preach, and profess 
 the kingdom of Christ openly ; others have had no such calling, nor more 
 has been required of them than their own faith. The former sort, if they 
 have been put to death for bearing witness to this point, that Jesus Christ 
 is risen from the dead, were true martyi-s ; for a " martyr " is (to give the 
 true definition of the word) a witness of the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah; 
 which none can be but those that conversed with Him on earth, and saw 
 Him after He was risen : for a witness must have seen what he testifieth, 
 or else his testimony is not good. And that none but such can properly be 
 called martyrs of Christ, is manifest out of the words of St. Peter (Acts i. 
 21, 22), "Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the 
 time that the Lord Jesus went in and out amongst us, beginning from the 
 baptism of John unto that same day He was taken up from us, must one be 
 ordained to be a martyr" (that is a witness) " with us of His resurrection :" 
 where we may observe, that he which is to be a witness of the truth of the 
 resurrection of Christ, that is to say, of the trath of thif fundamental article 
 of Christian religion, that Jesus was the Christ, must be some disciple that 
 conversed with Him, and saw Him before and after His resurrection ; and 
 consequently must be one of His original disciples: whereas 1 hey which 
 were not so, can witness no more but that their antecessors said it, and are 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 227 
 
 therefore but M-itnesses of other men's testimony ; and are but second martyrs, 
 or martyrs of Christ's witnesses. 
 
 He, that to maintain every doctrine which he himself draweth out of the 
 history of our Saviour's life, and of the acts or epistles of the apostles, or 
 which he believeth upon the authority of a private man, will oppose the laws 
 and authority of the civil state, is very far from being a martyr of Christ, or 
 a martyr of His martyrs. It is one article only, which to die for, meriteth 
 so honourable a name : and that article is this, that "Jesus is the Christ ;" 
 that is to say, He that hath redeemed us, and shall come again to give us 
 salvation and eternal life in His glorious kingdom. To die for every tenet 
 that servetli the ambition or profit of the clergy, is not required ; nor is it 
 the death of the witness, but the testimony itself that makes the martyr : 
 for the word signifieth nothing else but the man that beareth witness, whether 
 he be put to death for his testimony or not. 
 
 Also he that is not sent to preach this fundamental article, but taketh it 
 upon him of his private authority, though he be a witness, and consequently 
 a martyr, either primary of Christ, or secondary of His apostles, disciples, or 
 their successors ; yet is he not obliged to suffer death for that cause ; because 
 being not called thereto, it is not required at his hands ; nor ought he to 
 complain if he loseth the reward he expecteth from those that never set 
 him on work.' None therefore can be a martyr, neither of the first nor 
 second degree, that have not a warrant to preach Christ come in the flesh ; 
 that is lo say, none but such as are sent to the conversion of infidels. For 
 no man is a witness to him that already believeth, and therefore needs no 
 witness ; but to them that deny, or doubt, or have not heard it. Christ sent 
 His apostles and His seventy disciples, with authority to preach ; He sent 
 not all that believed. And He sent them to unbelievers ; " I send you," 
 saith He (Matt. x. 16), " as sheep amongst wolves ;" not as sheep to other 
 sheep. 
 
 Lastly, the points of their commission, as they are expressly set down in 
 the Gospel, contain, none of them, any authority over the congregation. 
 
 We have first (Matt. x. 6, 7), that the twelve apostles were sent " to the 
 lost sheep of the house of Israel," and commanded to preach "that the 
 kingdom of God was at hand." Now preaching, in the original, is that 
 act which a crier, herald, or other officer useth to do publicly in proclaim- 
 ing of a king. But a crier hath not right to command any man. And 
 (Luke X. 2) the' seventy disciples are sent out as "labourers, not as lords 
 of the harvest ; " and are bidden (verse 9) to say, " The kingdom of God 
 is come nigh unto you ; " and by kingdom here is meant, not the kingdoni 
 of grace, but the kingdom of glory ; for they are bidden (verses II, 12) to 
 denounce it to those cities which shall not receive them, as a threatening, 
 " that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for such a city." 
 And (Matt. xx. 28) our Saviour telleth His disciples, that sought priority of 
 place, their office was to minister, " even as the Son of man came, not to be 
 ministered unto, but to minister." Preachers therefore have not magisterial, 
 but ministerial power : " Be not called masters," salth our Saviour (Matt. 
 xxiii. 10), " for one is your master, even Christ." . . . ■ 
 
 Another point of their commission is, to " Teach all nations ; " Jis it is in 
 St. Matt, xxviii. 19, or as in St. Mark xvi. 15, " Go into all the world, 
 and preach the gospel to every creature. " Teaching therefore and preach- 
 ing is the same thing. For they that proclaim the coming of a king, must 
 withal make known by what right he cometh, if they mean men shall sub- 
 mit themselves unto him : as St. Paul did to the Jews of ThessaJonica, 
 when (Acts xvii. 2, 3) "three Sabbath days he reasoned with them out of 
 the Sciiptuies, opening and alleging that Christ must negds have suffered, 
 and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus is Christ." But to teach 
 
 H 2 
 
228 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 out of the Old Testament that Jesus was Christ, that is to say, king, and 
 risen from the dead, is not to say that men are bound„after they believe it, 
 to obey those that tell them so against the laws and commands of their 
 sovereigns ; but that they shall do wisely to expect the coming of Christ 
 hereafter, in patience and faith, with obedience to their present magistrates. 
 
 Another point of their commission is, to "baptize, in the name of the 
 Father, 'and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." What is baptism? 
 Dipping into water. But what is it to dip a man into the water in the name 
 of anything ? The meaning of these words of baptism is this. He that is 
 baptized, is dipped or washed, as a sign of becoming a new man, and a loyal 
 subject to that God, whose person was represented in old time by Moses 
 and the high priests, when He reigned over the Jews ; and to Jesus Christ 
 His Son, God and Man, that hath redeemed us, and shall in His human 
 nature represent His Father's person in His eternal kingdom after the resur- 
 rection ; and to acknowledge the doctrine of the apostles, who, assisted by 
 the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, were left for guides to bring us into 
 that kingdom, to be the only and assured way thereunto. This being our 
 promise in baptism ; and the authority of earthly sovereigns being not to be 
 put down till the day of judgment ; for that is expressly affirmed by St. 
 Paul (l Cor. XV. 22, 23, 24), where he saith, "As in Adam all die, so in 
 Christ all shall be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ 
 the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming ; then cometh 
 the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the 
 Father, when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and 
 power;" it is manifest that we do not in baptism constitute over us 
 another authority, by which our external actions are to be governed in this 
 life ; but promise to take the doctrine of the apostles for our direction in 
 the way to life eternal. 
 
 The power of "remission and retention of sins,'' called also the power of 
 " loosing " and " binding," and sometimes the " keys of the Idngdom of 
 heaven,' is a consequence of the authority to baptize, or refuse to baptize. 
 For baptism i i the sacrament of allegiance of them that are to be received 
 into the kingdom of God ; that is to say, into eternal life ; that is to say, to 
 remission of sin : for as eternal life was lost by the committing, so it is 
 recovered by the remittnig of men's sins. The end of baptism is remission 
 of sins : and therefore St. Peter, when they that were converted by his 
 iseimon on the day of Pentecost, asked what they were to do, advised them 
 (Acts ii. 38) "to repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, for the 
 remission of sins." And therefore, seeing to baptize is to declare the 
 reception of men into God's kingdom; and to refuse to baptize is to declare 
 their exclusion ; it foUoweth, that the power" to declare them cast out, or 
 retained in it, was given to tlio same apostles, and their substitutes and 
 successors. And therefore after our Saviour had breathed upon them, 
 saying (John XX. 22), "Receive the Holy Ghost," H,e addeth in the next 
 verse, " Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and 
 whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." By which words, is not 
 granted an authority to for^ve or retain sins, simply and absolutely, as 
 God for^iveth or retaineth them, who knoweth the heart of man, and truth 
 of his pe'nitence and conversion ; but conditionally, to the penitent : and 
 this forgiveness or absolution, in case the absolved have but a feigned 
 repentance, is thereby, without other act or sentence of the absolved, made 
 void, and hath no effect at all to salvation, but on the contrary to the 
 aggravation of his sin. Therefore the apostles and their successors are to 
 follow but the outward marks of repentance ; which appearing, they have 
 no authority to deny absolution ; and if they appear not, they have no 
 authority to absolve. The same also is to be observed in baptism : for to 
 
OJf POWMR ^CCLESlASTtCAL. 22$ 
 
 a converted Jew, or Gentile, llie apostles had not the power to deny 
 baptism ; nor to grant it to the unpenitent. But seeing no man is able to 
 discern the truth of another man's repentance, further than by external 
 marks, taken from his words and actions, which are subject to hypocrisy ; 
 another question will arise, who it is that is constituted judge of thoe 
 marks? And this question is decided by our Saviour himself; "if thy 
 brother,'' saith he (Matt, xviii. 15, 16, 17), " shall trespass against thee, go 
 and tell him his fanlt, between thee and him alone; if he shall hear tliee, 
 thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take v>'ith 
 thee one or two more. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto 
 the Church ; but if he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as 
 an heathem man and a publican." By which it is manifest that the judgment 
 concerning the truth of lepentance, belonged not to any one man, but to th; 
 Church, that is, to the assembly of the faithful, or to them that have 
 Authority to be their representant. But besides the judgment, there is 
 necessary also the pronouncing of sentence. And this belonged always to 
 the af)ostle, or some pastor of the Church, as prolocutor; and of this our 
 Saviour speaketh in the i8th verse, "Whatsoever ye shall bind on eaitli, 
 shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall bj 
 loosed in heaven." And conformable hereunto was the practice of St. Paul 
 (i Cor. V. 3, 4, 5), where he saith, "For I verily, as absent in body, but 
 present in spirit, have determined already, as though I were present, con- 
 cerning him that hath so done this deed ; in the name of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan ;" that is to say, to 
 cast him out of the Church, as a man whose sins are not forgiven. Paul 
 here pronounceth the sentence ; but the assembly was first to hear the 
 cause, for St. Paul was absent, and by consequence to condemn him. But 
 in the same chapter (verses II, 12), thf judgment in such a case is more 
 expressly attributed to the assembly: " But now I have written unto you, 
 not to keep company, if any man that '\f: called a brother be a fornicator, &c., 
 with such a one, no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them that 
 are without? Do not ye judge them that are within?" The sentence there- 
 fore by which a man was put out of the Church, was pronounced by the 
 apostle or pastor ; but the judgment concerning the merit of the cause, was 
 in the Church ; that is to say, as the times were before the conversion of 
 kings, and men that had sovereign authority in the commonwealth, the 
 assembly of the Christians dwelling in the same city : as in Corinth, in the 
 assembly of the Christians of Corinth. 
 
 This part of the power of the keys, by which men were thrust out from 
 the kingdom of God, is that which is called " excommunication ;" and to 
 "excommunicate," is in the original, iirocvviyinyav roietv, "to cast out of 
 the synagogue ;" that is, out of the place of divine service ; a word drawn 
 from the custom of the Jews, to cast out of their synagogues such as they 
 thought, in manners or doctrine, contagious, as lepers were by the law of 
 Moses separated from the congregation of Israel, till such time as they 
 should be by the priest pronounced clean. 
 
 The use and effect of excommunication, whilst it was not yet strengthened 
 with the civil power, was no more than that they who were not excom- 
 municate were to avoid the company of them that were. It was not 
 enough to repute them as heathen, that never had been Christians ; for with 
 such they might eat and drink ; which with excommunicate persons they 
 might not do ; as appeareth by the words of St. Paul (i Cor. v. 9, 10, &cO, 
 where he telleth them, he had formerly forbidden them to " company with 
 fornicators ;" but, because that could not be without going out of the world, 
 he restraineth it to such fornicators, and otherwise vicious persons, as were 
 
230 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 of the brethren ; "with such a one,'' h^ saith, they ought not to keep 
 company, "no not to eat." And this is no more than our Saviour saith 
 (Matt, xviii. i;), "Let him be to thee as a heathen, and as a publican." 
 For publicans, which signifieth farmers and receivers of the revenue of the 
 commonwealth, were so hated and detested by the Jews that were to pay 
 it, as that "publican" and "sinner" were taken amongst them for the 
 same thing : insomuch, as when our Saviour accepted the invitation ol 
 Zacchseus a publican ; though it were to convert him, yet it was objected 
 to Him as a crime. And therefore, when our Saviour to " heathen" added 
 " publican," He did forbid them to eat with a man excommunicate. 
 
 As for keeping them out of their synafjogues, or places of assembly, 
 they had no power to do it, but that of the owner of the place, whether he 
 were Christian or heathen. And because all places are by right in the 
 dominion of the commonwealth ; as well he that was excommunicated as 
 he that never was baptized, might enter into them by commission from the 
 civil magistrate ; as Paul before his conversion entered into their 
 synagogues at Damascus (Acts ix. 2), to apprehend Christians, men and 
 women, and to carry them bound to Jerusalem, by commission from the 
 high priest. 
 
 By which it appears that upon a Christian that should become an apostate, 
 in a place where the civil power did persecute, or not assist the Church, 
 the effect of excommunication had nothing in it, neither of damage in this 
 world, nor of terror : not of terror, because of their unbelief ; nor of 
 damage, because they are returned thereby into the favour of the world ; 
 and in the world to come were to be in no worse estate than they which 
 never had believed. The damage redounded rather to the Church, by 
 provocation of them they cast out, to a freer execution of their malice. 
 
 Excommunication therefore had its effect only upon those that believed 
 that Jesus Christ was to come again in glory, to reign over and to judge 
 both the quick and the dead, and should therefore refuse entrance into His 
 kingdom to those whose sins were retained, that is, to those that were ex- 
 communicated by the Church. And thence it is that St. Paul calleth 
 excommunication a delivery of the excommunicate person to Satan. For 
 without the kingdom of Christ, all other kingdoms, after judgment, are 
 comprehended in the kingdom of Satan. This is it that the faithful stood 
 in fear of as long as they stood excommunicate, that is to say, in an estate 
 wherein their sins were not forgiven. Whereby we may understand that 
 excommunication, in the time that Christian religion was not authorized by 
 the civil power, was used only for a correction of manners, not of errors in 
 opinion ; for it is a punishment whereof none could be sensible but such as 
 believed, and expected the coming again of our Saviour to judge the world ; 
 and they who so believed needed no other opinion, but only uprightness of 
 life to be saved. 
 
 There lieth excommunication for injustice: as (Matt, xviii.), " If thy 
 brother ofiend thee, tell it him privately ;" then with witnesses ; lastly, teU 
 the Church ; and then if he obey not, " I,et him be to thee as an heathen 
 rnan and a publican." And there lieth excommunication for a scandalous 
 life, as ( I Cor. v. 11), "If any man that is called a brother, be a fornicator, 
 or covetous, or an idolater, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such a 
 one ye are not to eat." But to excommunicate a man that held this 
 foundation, that "Jesus was the Christ," for difference of opinion in other 
 points, by which that foundation was not destroyed, there appeareth no 
 authority in the Scripture, nor example in-the apostles. There is indeed 
 in St. Paul (Titus fii. 10), a text that seemeih to be to the contrary : " A 
 man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject. For 
 an " heretic " is he that being a member of the Church, teacheth heverthe. 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 231 
 
 ress some private opinion, which the Church has forbidden ; and such a 
 one, St. Paul adviseth Titus, after the first and second admonition, to 
 "reject." But to "reject," in this place, is not to "excommunicate" the 
 man ; but to " give over admonishing him, to let him alone, to set by dis- 
 puting -with him, " as one that is to be convinced only by himself. The 
 same apostle saith (2 Tim. ii. 23), "Foolish and unlearned questions 
 avoid ;" the word " avoid" in this place, and "reject" in the foimer, is 
 the same in the original, irapairoC; but foolish questions may be set by 
 without excommunication. And again (Titus iii. 9), "Avoid foolish 
 questions," where the original Tcpua-Taao ("set them by ") is equivalent to 
 the former word "reject." There is no other place that can so much as 
 colourably be drawn to countenance the casting out of the Church faithful 
 men, such as believed the foundation, only for a singiilar superstructure of 
 their own, proceeding perhaps from a good and pious conscience. But on 
 the contrary, all such places as command avoiding such disputes are written 
 for a lesson to pastors, such as Timothy and Titus were, not to make new 
 articles of faith, by determining ?very small controversy which oblige men 
 to a needless burthen of conscience, or provoke them to break the union of 
 tin Church. Which lesson the apostles themselves observed well. St. 
 Pc'tr and St. Paul, though their controversy were great, as we may read in 
 Gal. ij. 1 1, yet they did not cast one another out of the Church. Never- 
 theless, during the apostles' times, there were other pastors that observed 
 it not ; as Diotrephes (3 John, 9, &c.), who cast out of the Church such as 
 St. John himself thought fit to be received into it, out of a pride he took in 
 pre-eminence. So early it was that vainglory and ambition had found 
 entrance into the Church of Christ. 
 
 That a man be liable to excommunication, there be many conditions 
 requisite ; as first, that he be a member of some commonalty, that is to say, 
 of some lawful assembly, that is to say, of some Christian Church, that hath 
 power to judge of the cause for which he is to be excommunicated. For 
 where there is no community, there can be no excommunication ; nor where 
 there is no power to judge, can there be any power to give sentence. 
 
 From hence it foUoweth that one Church cannot be excommunicated by 
 another : for either they have equal power to excommunicate each other, in 
 which case excommunication is not discipline, nor an act of authority, but 
 schism, and dissolution of charity ; or one is so subordinate to the other, as 
 that they both have but one voice ; and then they be but one Church ; and 
 the part excommunicated is no more a Church, but a dissolute number of 
 individual persons. 
 
 And because the sentence of excommunication importeth an advice not to 
 keep company, nor so much as to eat with him that is excommunicate, if a 
 sovereign prince or assembly be excommunicate, the sentence is of no 
 effect. Foj: all subjects are bound to be in the company and presence of 
 their own sovereign, when he requireth it by the law of Nature ; nor can 
 they lawfully either expel him from any place of his own dominion, whether 
 profane or holy ; nor go out of his dominion without his leave ; much less, 
 if he caE them to that honour, refuse to eat with him. And as to other 
 princes and states, because they are not parts of one and the same congre- 
 gation, they need not any other sentence to keep them from keeping com- 
 pany with the state excommunicate : for the very institution, as it uniteth 
 many men into one 'community, so it dissociateth one community from 
 another : so that excommunication is not needful for keeping kings and 
 stales asunder ; nor has any further effect than is in the nature of policy 
 itself, unless it be to instigate princes to war upon one another. 
 
 Nor is the excommunication of a Christian subject that obeyeth the laws of 
 his own sovereign, whether Christian or heathen, of any effect. For if we 
 
232 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 believe that " Jesus is the Clirist, he hath the Spirit of God" (l John v. i) ; 
 "and God dwelleth in hini, and he in God" (l John iv. 15). But he that hath 
 the spirit of God ; 'lie that dwelleth in God ; he in whom God dwelleth, 
 can receive no harm by the excommunication of men. Therefore, he that 
 believeth Jesus to be the Christ, is free ftom all the dangers threatened to 
 persons excommunicate. He that believeth it not, is no Christian. There- 
 fore a true and unfeigned Christian is not liable to excommunication : nor 
 he also that is a professed Christian, till his hypocrisy appear in his manners, 
 that is, till his behaviour be contrary to the law of his sovereign, which is the 
 rule of manners, and which Christ and His apostles have commanded us to be 
 subject to. For the Church cannot judge of manners but by external actions, 
 which actions can never be unlawful but when they are against the law of the 
 commonweath. 
 
 If a man's father, or mother, or master be excommunicate, yet are not the 
 children forbidden to keep them company, nor to eat with them : for that 
 were, for the most part, to oblige them not to eat at all, for want of means 
 to get food ; and to authorize them to disobey their parents and masters, 
 conti'ary to the precepts of the apostles. 
 
 In sum, the power of excommunication cannot be extended further than to 
 the end for which the apostles and pastors of the Church have their commis- 
 sion from our Savionr ; which is not only to rule by command and co-action, 
 but by teaching and direction'of men in the way of salvation in the world to 
 come. And as a master in any science may abandon his scholar, when he 
 obstinately neglecteth the practice of his rales ; but not accuse him of in- 
 justice, because he was never bound to obey him : so a teacher of Christian 
 doctrine may abandon his disciples that obstinately continue in an un- 
 christian life ; but he cannot say they do him wrong, because they are not 
 obliged to obey him. For to a teacher that shall so complain may be applied 
 the answer of God to Samuel in the like place ( I Sam. viii, 7), " They have 
 not rejected thee, but me." Excommunication therefore, when it wanteth 
 the assistance of the civil power, as it doth, when a Christian state or prince 
 is excommunicate ly a foreign authority, is without effect ; and consequently 
 ought to be withoi ; terror. The name of Fulmen excommunicationis, that 
 is, "the thunderbolt of excommunication," proceeded from an imagination 
 of the Bishop of Rome, which first used it, that he was king of kings ; as 
 the heathen made Jspiter king of the gods, and assigned him, in (heir 
 poems and pictures, a thunderbolt, wherewith to subdue and punish the 
 giants that should dare to deny his power. Which imagination was 
 grounded on two errors ; one, that the kingdom of Christ is of this world, 
 contrary to our Saviour's own words (John xviii. 36), " My kingdom is not 
 of this world ; " the other, that he is Christ's vicar, not only over his own 
 subjects, but over all the Christians of the world; whereof there is no 
 ground in Scripture, and the contrary shall be proved in its due place. 
 
 St. Paul coming to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews 
 (Acts xvii. 2, 3), "as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sab- 
 bath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging 
 that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead j and 
 that this Jesus whom he preached was the Christ." The Scriptures here 
 mentioned were the Scriptures of the Jews, that is, the Old Testament. 
 The men, to whom he was to prove that Jesus was the Christ and risen 
 again from the dead, were also Jews, and did believe already that they were 
 the word of God. Hereupon (as it is in verse 4) some of them believed, 
 and (as it is in verse 5) some believed not. What was the reason, when 
 they all believed the Scripture, that they did not all believe alike ; but that 
 some approved, others disapproved the interpretation of St. Paul that cited 
 them; and every one interpreted them to himself? It was this : St. Paul 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 233 
 
 came to them without any legal commission, and in the manner of one that 
 would not command, but persuade; which he must needs do either by 
 miracles, as Moses did to the Israelites in Egypt, that they might see his 
 authority in God's works ; or by reasoning from the already received Scrip- 
 ture, that they might see the truth of his doctrine in God's word. But 
 whosoever persuadeth by reasoning from principles written, maketh him to 
 whom he speaketh judge both of the meaning of those principles, and also 
 of the force of his inferences upon them. If these Jews of Thessalonica 
 were not, who else was the judge of what St. Paul alleged out of Scrip- 
 ture ? If St. Paul, what needed he to quote any places to prove his doc- 
 trine ? It had been enough to have said, I find it so in Scripture, that is to 
 say, in your laws, of which I am interpreter, as sent by Chript. The inter- 
 - preter therefore of the Scripture, to whose interpretation the Jews of Thes- 
 salonica were bound to stand, could be none : every one might believe or 
 not believe, according as the allegation seemed to himself to be agreeable 
 or not agreeable to the meaning of the places alleged. And generally in 
 all cases of the world, he that pretendeth any proof maketh judge of his 
 proof him to whom he addresseth his speech. And as to the case of the 
 Jews in particular, they were bound by express words (Deut. xvii. ) to receive 
 the determination of all hard questions from the priests and judges of Israel 
 for the time being. But this is to be understood of the Jews that were yet 
 unconverted. 
 
 For the conversion of the Gentiles there was no use of alleging the 
 Scriptures, which they believed not. The apostles therefore laboured by 
 reason to confute their idolatry ; and that done, to persuade them to the 
 faith of Christ by their testimony of His life and resurrection. So that there 
 could not yet be any controversy concerning the authority to interpret 
 Scripture, seeing no man was obliged, during his infidelily, to follow any 
 man s interpretation of any Scripture, except his sovereign's interpretation 
 of the laws of his country. 
 
 Let us now consider the conversion itself, and see what there was therein 
 that could be cause of such an obligation. Men were converted to no other 
 thing than to the belief of that which the apostles preached : and the 
 apostles preached nothing but that Jesus was the Christ, that is to say, the 
 king that was to save them, and reign over them eternally in the world to 
 come ; and consequently that He was not dead, but risen again from the 
 dead, and gone up into heaven, and should come again one day to judge 
 the world (which also should rise again to be judged), and reward every 
 roan according to his works. None of them preached that himself, or any 
 other apostle, was such an interpreter of the Scripture, as all that became 
 Christians ought to take their interpretation for law. For to interpret the 
 laws is part of the administration of a present kingdom ; which the 
 apostles had not. They prayed then, and all other pastors ever since, " let 
 thy kingdom come ;" and exhorted their converts to obey their then ethnic 
 princes. The New Testament was not yet published in one body. Every 
 of the evangelists was interpreter of his own gospel ; and every apostle of 
 his own epistle ; and of the Old Testament our Saviour himself saith to the 
 Jews (John v. 39), " Search the Scriptures ; for in them ye think to have 
 eternal life, and they are they that testify of me." If He had not meant 
 they should interpret them, He would not have bidden them take thence 
 the proof of His being the Christ : He would either have interpreted them 
 himself, or referred them to the interpretation of the priests. 
 
 When a difficulty arose, the apostles and elders of the Church assembled 
 themselves together, and determined what should be preached and taught, 
 and how they should interpret the Scriptures to the people ; but took not 
 frwn the people the liberty to read and interpret them to themselves. The 
 
234 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 apostles sent divers letters to the Churches, and other writings for their 
 instruction ; which had been in vain [if they had not allowed them to 
 interpret, that is, to consider the meaning of them. And as it was in the 
 apostles' time, it must be till such time as there should be pastors that 
 could authorize an interpreter, whose interpretation should generally be 
 stood to : but that could noi be till kings were pastors, or pastors kings. 
 
 There be two senses, wherein a writing may be said to be " canonical ;" 
 for " canon " signifieth a, " rule ;" and a rule is a precept, by which 
 a man is guided and directed in any action whatsoever. Such precepts, 
 though given by a teacher to his disciple, or a counsellor to his friend, 
 without power to compel him to observe them, are nevertheless canons ; 
 because they are rules. But when they are given by one, whom he 
 that receiveth them is bound lo obey, then are those canons, not only 
 rules, but laws. The question therefore here, is of the power to make the 
 Scriptures, which are the rules of Christian faith, laws. 
 
 That part of the Scripture which was first law, was the Ten Command- 
 ments written in two tables of stone, and delivered by God himself to 
 Moses ; and by Moses made known to the people. Before that time there 
 was no written law of God, who as yet having not chosen any people to 
 be His peculiar kingdom, had given no law to men, but the law of Nature, 
 that is to say, the precepts of natural reason written in every man's ovra 
 heart. Of these two tables, the first containeth the law of sovereignty ; 
 I. That they should not obey nor honour the gods of other nations, in 
 these words : Non habebis deos alienos coram me, that is, " thou shalt not 
 have for gods, the gods that other nations worship, but only me ; " whereby 
 they were forbidden to obey or honour as their king and governor, any 
 other god than Him that spake unto them then by Moses, and after- 
 wards by the high priest. 2. That they " should not make any image to 
 represent Him," that is to say, they were not to choose to tliemselves, 
 neither in heaven, nor in earth, any representative of their own fancying, 
 but obey Moses and Aaron, whom He had appointed to that office. 3. 
 That " they should not take the name of God in vain ; " that is, they 
 should not speak rashly of their king, nor dispute his right, nor the com- 
 missions of Moses and Aaron, His lieutenants. 4. That " they should 
 every seventh day abstain from their ordinary labour," and employ that 
 time in doing Him public honour. The second table containeth the duty 
 of one man towards another, as " to honour parents," " not to kill," "not 
 to commit adultery," "not to steal," "not to corrupt judgment by false 
 witness," and finally, "not so much as to design in their heart the doing 
 of any injury one to another." The question now is, who it was that gave 
 to these written tables the obligatory force of laws. There is no doubt but 
 they were made laws by God himself; but because a law obliges not, nor 
 is law to any, but to them that acknowledge it to be the act of the sove- 
 reign ; how could the people of Israel, that were forbidden to approach 
 the mountain to hear what God said to Moses, be obliged to obedience to 
 all those laws which Moses propounded to them ? Some of them were 
 indeed the laws of Nature, as all the second table ; and therefore to be 
 acknowledged for God's laws ; not to the Israelites alone, but to all people ; 
 but of those that were peculiar to the Israelites, as those of the first table, 
 the question remains ; saving that they had obliged themselves, presently 
 after the propoimding of them to obey Moses, in these words (Exod. xx. 
 19), " Speak thou to us, and we will hear thee; but let not God speak to 
 US, lest we die." It was therefore only Moses then, and after him the 
 high priest, whom, by Moses, God declared should administer this His 
 peculiar kingdom, that had on earth the power to make this short Scrip- 
 ture of the Decalogue to be law in the commonwealth of Israel. But 
 
^OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 235 
 
 Moses and Aaron, and the succeeding high priests, were the civil sovereigns . 
 Therefore hitherto, the canonizing or making the Scripture law, belonged 
 to the civil sovereign. 
 
 The judicial law, that is to say, the laws that God prescribed to the 
 magistrates of Israel for the rule of their administration of justice, and of 
 the sentences or judgments they should pronounce in pleas between man 
 and man ; and the Levitical law, that Is to say, the rule that God pre- 
 scribed touching the rites and ceremonies of the priests and Levites, were 
 all delivered to them by Moses only.; and therefore also became laws, by 
 virtue of the same promise of obedience to Moses. Whether these laws 
 were then written, or not written, but dictated to the people by Moses, 
 after his being forty days with God in the Mount, by word of mouth, is not 
 expressed in the text ; but they were all positive laws, and equivalent to 
 Holy Scripture, and made canonical by Moses the civil sovereign. 
 
 After the Israelites were come into the plains of Moab over against 
 Jericho, and ready to enter into the Land of Promise, Moses to the former 
 laws added divers others ; which therefore are called Deuteronomy ; that 
 is, " second laws." And are (as it is written Deut. xxix. I), "the words 
 of a covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to malce with the children 
 of Israel, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb. For 
 having explained those former laws, in the beginning ot the Book of 
 Deuteronomy, he addeth others, that begin at the xiith chapter, and con- 
 tinue to the end of the xxvith of the same book. This law (Deut. xxvii. 3) 
 they were commanded to write upon great stones plastered over, at their 
 passing over Jordan : this law also was written by Moses himself in a 
 book, and delivered into the hands of the " priests and to the elders of 
 Israel " (Deut. xxxi. 9), and commanded (verse 26), " to be put in the side of 
 the ark ; " for in the ark itself was nothing but the " Ten Commandments." 
 This was the l.iw which Moses (Deut. xvii. 18) commanded the kings of 
 Israel should keep a copy of : and this is the law, which having been long 
 time lost, was found again in the temple in the time of Josiah, and by his 
 authority received for the law of God. But both Moses at the writing, and 
 Josiah at the recovery thereof, had both of them the civil sovereignty. 
 Hitherto therefore the power of making Scripture canonical, was in the 
 civil sovereign. 
 
 Besides this Book of the Law, there was no other book, from the time of 
 Moses till after the Captivity, received amongst the Jews for the law of 
 God. For the prophets, except a few, lived in the time of the Captivity 
 itself; and the rest lived but a little before it ; and were so far from having 
 their prophecies generally received for laws, as that their persons were 
 persecuted, partly by false prophets, and partly by the kings which were 
 seduced by them. And this book itself, which was confirmed by Josiah 
 for the law of God, and with it all the history of the works of God, was 
 lost in ihe Captivity and sack of the city of Jerusalem, as appears by that of 
 2 Esdras xiv. 21, " thy law is burnt ; therefore no man knoweth the things 
 that are done of thee, or the works that shall begin. " And before the 
 Captivity, between the time when the law was lost (which is not mentioned 
 in the Scripture, but may probably be thought to be the time of Rehoboam, 
 when (i Kings xiv. 26) Shishak, king of Egypt, took the spoil of the 
 temple), and the time of Josiah when it was found again, they had no 
 Ivritten word of God, but ruled according to their own discretion, or by the 
 direction of such as each of them esteemed prophets. 
 
 From hence we may infer that the Scriptures of the Old Testament, 
 which we have at this day, were not canonical nor a law unto the Jews, till 
 the renovation of their covenant with God at their return from the Captivity, 
 and restoration of their commonwealth under Esdras. But from that time 
 
236 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 forward they were accounted the law of the Jews, and for such translated 
 into Greek by seventy elders of Judea, and put into the library of Ptolemy 
 at Alexandria, and approved for the word of God. Now seeing Esdras 
 was the high priest, and the high priest was their civil sovereign, it is mani- 
 fest that the Scriptures were never made laws, but by the sovereign civil 
 power. 
 
 By the writings of the fathers that lived in the time before that the 
 Christian religion was received, and authorized by Constantine the emperor, 
 we may find that the books we now have of the New Testament were held 
 by the Christians of that time, except a few (in respect of whose paucity 
 the rest were called the Catholic Church, and others heretics), for the dic- 
 tates of the Holy Ghost, and consequently for the canon or rule of faith: 
 such was the reverence and opinion they had of their teachers ; as generally 
 the reverence that the disciples bear to their first masters in all manner of 
 doctrine they receive from them is not small. Therefore there is no doubt 
 but when St. Paul wrote to the Churches he had converted, or any other 
 apostle or disciple of Christ, to those which had then embraced Christ ; 
 they received those their writings for the true Christian doctrine. But in 
 that time, when not the power and authority of the teacher, but the faith 
 of the hearer, caused them to receive it, it was not the apostles that 
 made their own viTitings canonical, but every convert made them so to 
 himself. 
 
 But the question here is not what any Christian made a law or canon to 
 himself, which he might again reject by the same right he received it ; but 
 what was so made a canon to them, as without injustice they could not do 
 anything contrary thereunto. That the New Testament should in this sense 
 be canonical, that is to say a law, in any place where the law of the com- 
 monwealth had not made it so, is contrary to the nature of a law. For a 
 law, as has been already shown, is the commandment of that man or 
 assembly, to whom we have given sovereign authority to make such rules 
 for the direction of our actions as he shall think fit, and to punish us when 
 we do anything contrary to the same. When therefore any other man shall 
 offer unto us any other rules; which the sovereign ruler hath not prescribed, 
 they are but counsel and advice ; which, whether good or bad, he that is 
 counselled may without injustice refuse to observe ; and when contrary to 
 the laws already established, without injustice caimot observe how good 
 soever he conceiveth it to be. I say he cannot in this case observe the 
 sapie in his actions, nor in his discourse with other men ; though he may 
 without blame believe Iiii private teachers, and wish he had the liberty to 
 practise their advice, and that it were publicly received for law. For 
 internal faith is in its own nature invisible, and consequently exempted from 
 all human jurisdiction ; whereas the words and actions that proceed from it, 
 as breaches of our civil obedience, are injustice both before God and man. 
 Seeing then our Saviour hath denied His kingdom to be in this world, 
 seeing He had said He came not to judge, but to save the world, He hath 
 not subjected us to other laws than those of the commonwealth ; that is, 
 the J=v/s to the law of Moses, which he saith (Matt. v. 17), He came not 
 to destroy, but to fulfil ; and other nations to the laws of their several 
 sovereigns, and all men to the laws of Nature ; the observing whereof both 
 He himself and His apostles have in their teaching recommended to us as a 
 necessary condition of being admitted by Him in the last day into His 
 eternal kingdom, wherein shall be protection and life everlasting. Seeing 
 then our Saviour and His apostles left not new laws to oblige us in this 
 world, but new doctrine to prepare us for the next ; the books of the New 
 Testament, which contain that doctrine, until obedience to them was com- 
 manded by them that God had given power to on earth to be l^slators. 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 237 
 
 were not obligatory canons, that is laws, but only good and safe advice for 
 the direction of sinners in the way to salvation, which every man might take 
 and refuse at his own peril without injustice. 
 
 Again, our Saviour Christ's commission to His apostles and disciples was 
 to proclaim His kingdom, not present, but to come ; and to teach all nations, 
 and to baptize them that should believe ; and to enter into the houses of 
 them that should receive them, and where they were not received, to shake 
 off the dust of their feet :igainst them ; but not to call for fire from heaven 
 to destroy them, nor to compel them to obedience by the sword. In all 
 which there is nothing of power, but of persuasion. He sent them out as 
 sheep unto wolves, not as kings to their subjects. Tliey had not in com- 
 mission to make laws ; but to obey, and teach obedience to laws made ; and 
 consequently they could not make their writings obligatory canons without 
 the help of the sovereign civil power, And therefore the Scripture of the 
 New Testament is there only law where the lawful civil power hath made 
 it so. And there also the king, or sovereign, maketh it a law to himself ; 
 by which he subjecteth himself, not to the doctor or apostle that converted 
 him, but to God himself and His Son Jesus Christ, as immediately as did 
 the apostles themselves. 
 
 That which may seem to give the New Testament, in respect of those 
 that have embraced Christian doctrine, the force of laws, in the times and 
 places of persecution, is the decrees they made amongst themselves in their 
 synod. For we read (Acts xv. 28) the style of the council of the apostles, 
 the elders, and the whole Church, in this manner : " It seemed good to the 
 Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen thaii these 
 necessary tlungs," &c. ; which is a style that signifieth a power to lay a 
 burthen on them that had received their doctrine. Jf ow " to lay a burthen 
 on another," seemeth the same as "to oblige ; " and therefore the acts of 
 that council were laws to the then Christians. Nevertheless, they were no 
 more laws than are these other precepts, "repent;" " be baptized ; " "keep 
 the commandments ; " " believe the gospel ; " " come unto me ; " " sell all 
 that thou hast ; " " give it to the poor ; " and " follow me ; " which are not 
 commands, but invitations and callings of men to Christianity, like that of 
 Isaiah Iv. I, " Ho every man that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, come, 
 and buy wine and milk without money." For first, the apostles' power was 
 no other than that of our Saviour, to invite men to embrace the kingdom of 
 God ; which they themselves acknowledged for a kingdom, not present, 
 but to come ; and they that have no kingdom can make no laws. And 
 secondly, if their acts of council were laws, they could not without sin be 
 disobeyed. But we read not anywhere that they who received not the doc- 
 trine of Christ did therein sin ; but that they died in their sins ; that is, 
 that their sins against the laws to which they owed obedience were not 
 pardoned. And those laws were the laws of Nature, and the civil laws of 
 the state, whereto every Christian man had by pact submitted himself. And 
 therefore by the burthen which the apostles might lay on such as they had 
 converted are not to be understood laws, but conditions proposed to those 
 that sought salvation ; which they might accept or refuse at their own peril, 
 without a new sin, though not without the hazard of being condemned and 
 excluded out of the kingdom of God for their sins past. And therefore of 
 infidels, St. John saith not, the wrath of God shall ' ' come " upon them, but 
 John iii. 36) "the wrath of God remaineth upon them ;" and not that they 
 shaU be condemned, but that (John iii. 18) "they are condemned already." 
 Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of faith "is remission of sins, 
 unless we conceive virithal that the damage of infidelity " is the retention of 
 the same sins." , , , .., i ^i. 
 
 But to wh^t end is it, may some man ask, that the apostles, and other 
 
238 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 pastors of the Church after their time, should meet together to agree upon 
 what doctrine should be taught, both for faith and manners, if no man were 
 obliged to observe their decrees? To this may be answered, that the 
 apostles and elders of that council were obliged even by their entrance into 
 it, to teach the doctrine therein concluded and decreed to be taught, so far 
 forth, as no precedent law, to which they were obliged to yield obedience, 
 was to the contrary ; but not that all other Christians should be obliged to 
 observe what they taught. For though they might deliberate what each 
 of them should teach ; yet they could not deliberate what others should do, 
 unless their assembly had had a legislative power ; which none could have 
 but civil sovereigns. For though God be the sovsreign of all the world, we 
 are not bound to take for His law whatsoever is propounded by every man 
 in His name ; nor anything contrary to the civil law, which God hath ex- 
 pressly commanded us to obey. 
 
 Seeing then the acts of council of the apostles were then no laws, but 
 counsels ; much less are laws the acts of any other doctors or council since, 
 if assembled without the authority of the civil sovereign. And consequently, 
 the Books of the New Testament, though most perfect rules of Christian 
 doctrine, could not be made laws by any other authority than that of kings 
 or sovereign assemblies. 
 
 The first council, that made the Scriptures we now have canon, is not 
 extant : for that collection of the canons of the apostles, attributed to 
 Clemens, the first bishop of Rome after St. Peter, is subject to question. 
 For though the canonical books be there reckoned up ; yet these words, 
 sint vobis omnibus dericis et laicis libri venirandi, &c., contain a distinction 
 of clergy and laity, that was not in use so near St. Peter's time. The first 
 council for settling the canonical Scripture that is extant, is that of 
 Laodicea (Can. lix.), which forbids the reading of other books than those in 
 the Churches ; which is a mandate that is not addressed to every Christian, 
 but to those only that had authority to read anything publicly in the Church, 
 that is, to ecclesiastics only. 
 
 Of ecclesiastical officers in the lime of the apostles, some were magisterial, 
 some ministerial. Magisterial were the offices of the preaching of the 
 gospel of the kingdom of God to infidels ; of administering the sacraments, 
 and divine service ; and of teaching the rules of faith and manners to those 
 that were converted. Ministerial was the office of deacons, that is, of them 
 that were appointed to the administration of the secular necessities of the 
 Church, at such time as they lived upon a common stock of money raised out 
 of the voluntary contributions of the faithful. 
 
 Amongst the officers magisterial, the first and principal were the apostles ; 
 whereof there were at first but twelve ; and these were chosen and con- 
 stituted by our Saviour himself ; and their office was not only to preach, 
 teach, and baptize, but also to be martyrs, witnesses of our Saviour's 
 resurrection. U'his testimony was the specificaland essential mark, whereby 
 the apostleship was distinguished from other magistracy ecclesiastical, as 
 being necessary for an apostle, either to have seen our Saviour after His re- 
 surrection, or to have conversed with Him before, and seen His works and 
 other arguments of His divinity, whereby they might be taken for sufficient 
 witnesses. And therefore at the election of a new apostle in the place of 
 Judas Iscariot, St. Peter saith (Acts i. 21, 22), " Of these men that have 
 companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out 
 amongst us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that He 
 was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His 
 resurrection : " where by this word " must," is implied a necessaiy property 
 of an apostle, to have companied with the first and prime apostles, in the 
 time that our Saviour manifested himself in the flesh. 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 239 
 
 The first apostle of those which were not constituted by Christ in the time 
 He was upon the earth, was Matthias, chosen in this manner. There were 
 assembled together in Jerusalem about one hundred and twenty Christians 
 (Acts 1. 15). These (verse 23) appointed two, Joseph the Just and Mat- 
 thias, and caused lots to be drawn ; "and (verse 26) the lot fell on Matthias 
 and he was numbered with the apostles." So that here we see the ordina- 
 tion of this apostle was the act of the congregation, and not of St. Peter 
 nor of the eleven, otherwise than as members of the assembly. 
 
 After him there was never any other apostle ordained, but Paul and 
 Barnabas ; which was done as we read (Acts xiii. i, 2, 3) in this manner. 
 " There were in the Church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and 
 teachers ; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of 
 Cyrene, and Manaen ; which hac! been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, 
 an4 Saul. As they ministered unto the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost 
 said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have 
 called them. And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands 
 on them, they sent them away." 
 
 By which it is manifest that though they were called by the Holy Ghos', 
 their calling was declared unto them and their mission authorized by the 
 particular Church of Antioch. And that this their calling was to the 
 apostleship, is apparent by that, that they are both called (Acts xiv. 14) 
 apostles : and that it was by virtue of this act of the Church of Antioch 
 that they were apostles, St. Paul declareth plainly (Rom. i. i), in that he 
 useth the word, which the Holy Ghost used at his calling : for he styletli 
 himself " An apostle separated unto the gospel of God ; " alluding to the 
 words of the Holy Ghost, "Separate me, Barnabas and Saul," &c. But 
 seeing the work of an apostle was to be u witness of the resurrection of 
 Christ, a man may here ask, how St. Paul, that conversed not with ou/ 
 Saviour before His passion, could know He was risen ? To which is easily 
 answered, that our Saviour himself appeared to him in the way to Damascus, 
 from heaven, after His ascension ; " and chose him for a vessel to bear His 
 name before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel : " and conse- 
 quently, having seen the Lord after His passion, he was a competent witness 
 of His resurrection. And as for Barnabas, he was a disciple before the 
 passion. It is therefore evident that Paul and Barnabas were apostles ; and 
 yet chosen and authorized, not by the first apostles alone, but by the Church 
 of Antioch ; as Matthias was chosen and authorized by the Church of 
 Jenisalem. 
 
 "Bishop," a word formed in our language out of the Greek ETrfo-Koiros, 
 signifieth an overseer or superintendent of any business, and particularly a 
 pastor or shepherd ; and thence by metaphor was taken, not only amongst 
 the Jews that were originally shepherds, but also amongst the heathen, to 
 signify the office of a king, or any other rule or guide of people, whether he 
 ruled by laws or doctrine. And so the apostles were the first Christian 
 bishops, instituted by Christ himself: in which sense the apostleship of 
 Judas is called (Acts i. 20) " his bishopric." And afterwards, when 
 there were constituted elders in the Christian Churches, with charge to guide 
 Christ's flock by their doctrine and advice ; these elders were also called 
 bishops. Timothy was an elder (which word ' ' elder," in the New Testa- 
 ment, is a name of office, as well as of age) ; yet he was also a bishop. And 
 bishops were then content with the title of elders. Nay, St. John himself, 
 the apostle beloved of our Lord, beginneth his second Epistle with these 
 words, "Theelderto the elect lady." By which it is evident that "bishop," 
 "pastor," "elder," "doctor," thatisto say, "teacher," were butsomanydivers 
 names of the same office in the time of the apostles ; for there was then no 
 government by coercion, but only by doctrine and persuading. The kingdom 
 
240 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 of God was yet to come, in a new world : so that there could be no authority 
 to compel in any Church, till the commonwealth had embraced the Chris- 
 tian faith : and consequently no diversity of authority, though there were 
 diversity of employments. 
 
 Besides these magisterial employments in the Church, namely, apostles, 
 bishops, elders, pastors, and doctors, whose calling was to proclaim Christ 
 to the Jews and infidels, and to direct and to teach those that beliSved, we 
 read in the New Testament of no other. For by the names of "evangelists" 
 and ' ' prophets" is not signified any office, but several gifts, by which several 
 men were profitable to the Church : as evangelists, by writing the life and 
 acts of our Saviour ; such as were St. Matthew and St. John apostles, and 
 St. Mark and St. Luke disciples, and whosoever else wrote of that subject 
 (as St. Thomas and St. Barbabas are said to have done, though the Church 
 have not received the books that have gone under their names) : and as 
 prophets, by the gift of interpreting the Old Testament, and sometimes by 
 declaring their special revelations to the Church. For neither these gifts, 
 nor the gifts of languages, nor the gift of casting out devils, nor of curing 
 other diseases, nor anything else, did make an officer in the Church, save 
 only the due calling and election to the charge of teaching. 
 
 As the apostles, Matthias, Paul, and Barnabas, were not made by our 
 Saviour himself, but were elected by the Church, that is, by the assembly 
 of Christians ; namely, Matthias by the Church of Jerusalem, and Paul and 
 Barnabas by the Church of Antioch ; so were also the " presbyters" and 
 ' ' pastors" in other cities, elected by the Churches of those cities. For 
 proof whereof let us consider, first, how St. Paul proceeded in the ordina- 
 tioii of presbyters, in the cities where he had converted men to the Christian 
 faith, immediately after he and Barnabas had received their apostleship. 
 We read (Acts xiv. 23) that " they ordained elders in every Church ; " 
 which at first sight may be taken for an argument, that they themselves 
 chose, and gave them their authority ; but if we consider the original text, 
 it will be manifest that they were authorized and chosen by the assembly 
 of the Christians of each city. For the words there are, xiii)aTovi\aaVTiS Avtois 
 Tfiecrpvripovs Kar' iKK\ij(rlav, that is, "when they had ordained them elders 
 by the holding up of hands in every congregation." Now it is well enough 
 known, that in all those cities the manner of choosing magistrates and 
 officers was by plurality of suffrages ; and, because the ordinary way of dis- 
 tinguishing the affirmative votes from the negatives was by holding up of 
 hands, to ordain an officer in any of the cities, was no more but to bring 
 the people together, to elect them by plurality of votes, whether it were by 
 plurality of elevated hands, or by'plurality of voices, or plurality of balls, 
 or beans, or small stones, of which every man cast in one, into a vessel 
 marked for the affirmative or negative ; for divers cities had divers customs 
 in that point. It was therefore the assembly that elected their own elders : 
 the apostles were only presidents of the assembly, to call them together for 
 such election, and to pronounce them elected, and to give them the bene- 
 diction which now is called consecration. And for this cause, they that 
 were presidents of the assemblies, as in the absence of the apostles the 
 elders were, were called irpmaTum, and in Latin antisiites; which words 
 signify the principal person of the assembly, whose office was to number 
 the votes, and to declare thereby who was chosen ; and where the votes 
 were equal, to decide the matter in question by adding his own ; which is 
 the office of a president in council. And, because all the Churches had 
 their presbyters ordained in the same manner, where the word is " consti- 
 tute" (as Titus i. 5), ha KaTaaTijirris Kara irb'Ktv Trpes/SuWpow, " For this 
 cause left I thee in Crete, that thoushouldst constitute elders in every city," 
 ■we are to understand the same thing, namely, that he should call the faithfiil 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 241 
 
 together, aid ordain them presbyters by plurality of suffrages. It had 
 been a strange thing, if in a town, where men perhaps had never seen any 
 magistrate otherwise chosen than by an assembly, those of the town becom- 
 ing Christians should so much as have thought on any other way of election 
 of their teachers and guides, that is to say, of their presbyters (otherwise 
 called bishops), than this of plurality of suffrages, intimated by St. Paul 
 (Acts xiv. 23) in the word xafttTovi)i!avm. Nor was there ever any 
 choosing of bishops before the emperors found it necessary to regulate 
 them, in ordej to the keeping of the peace amongst them, but by the 
 assemblies of the Christians in every several town. 
 
 The same is also confirmed by the continual practice, even to this day, 
 in the election bf the bishops of Rome. For if the bishop of any place 
 had the I'ight of choosing another to the succession of the pastoral office, 
 in any city, at such times as he went from thence to plant the same in 
 another place ; much more had he had the right to appoint his successors 
 in that place in which he last resided and died ; and we find not that ever 
 any bishop of Rome appointed his successor. For they were a long time 
 chosen by the people, as we may see by the sedition raised about the 
 election between Damasus and Ursicinus, which Ammianus Marcellinus 
 saith was so great, that Juventius the prsefect, unable to keep the peace 
 between them, was forced to go out of the city ; and that there were above 
 an hundred men found dead upon that occasion in the church itself. And 
 though they afterwards were chosen, first, by the whole clergy of Rome, 
 and afterwards by the cardinals, yet never any was appointed to the suc- 
 cession by his predecessor. If therefore they pretended no right to appoint 
 their own successors, I think I may reasonably conclude they had no right 
 to appoint the successors of other bishops without receiving some new 
 power, which none could take from the Church to bestow on them, but 
 such as had a lawful authority, not only to teach, but to command the 
 Church, which none could do but the civil sovereign. 
 
 The word "minister," in the original AMJconor, signifieth one that 
 voluntarily doth the business of another man, and differeth from a servant 
 only in this, that servants are obliged by their condition to do what is com- 
 manded them ; whereas ministers are obliged only by their undertaking, 
 and bound therefore to no more than that they have undertaken ; so that 
 both they that teach the word of God, and they that administer the secular 
 affairs of the Church, are both ministers, but they are ministers of different 
 persons. For the pastors of the Church called (Acts vi. 4) " the ministers 
 of the word," are ministers of Christ, whose word it is ; but the ministry of 
 a deacon, which is called (verse 2 of the same chapter) " serving of tables," 
 is a service done to the Church or congregation : so that neither any one 
 man, nor the whole Church, could ever of their pastor say, he was their 
 minister : but of a deacon, whether the charge he undertook were to serve 
 tables, or distribute maintenance to the Christians, when they lived in each 
 city on a common stock or upon collections, as in the first times, or to take 
 a care of the house of prayer, or of the revenue, or other worldly business 
 of the Church, the whole congregation might properly call him their 
 minister. 
 
 For their employment as deacons was to serve the congregation ; though 
 ■ upon occasion they omitted not to preach the gospel, and maintain the 
 doctrine of Christ, every one according to his gifts, as St. Stephen did ; 
 and both to preach and baptize, as Philip did. For that Philip, which 
 (Acts viii. 5) preached the gospel at Samaria, and (verse 38) baptized the 
 eunuch, was Philip the deacon, not Philip the apostle. For it is manifest 
 (verse l) that when Philip preached in Samaria, the apostles were at 
 Jerusalem, and (verse 14) "when they heard that Samaria had received 
 
243 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 the word of God, sent Peter and John to them ;" by imposition of whose 
 hands, they that were baptized (verse 15),. received, which before by the 
 baptism of Philip they had not received, the Holy Gliost, For it was 
 necessary for the conferring of the Holy Ghost, that their baptism should 
 be administered or confirmed by a minister of the word, not by a minister 
 of the Cliurch. And therefore to confirm the baptism of those that Philip 
 the deacon had baptized, the apostles sent out of their own number from 
 Jerusalem to Samaria, Peter and John ; who conferred on them that before 
 -vere but baptized, those graces that were signs of the Holy Spirit, which at 
 chat time did accompany all true believers ; which what they were may be 
 understood by that which St. Mark saith (chap. xvi. 17), "these signs 
 follow them that believe in my name; they shall cast out devils _;_ they 
 shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they 
 drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; .they shall lay hands on the 
 sick, and they shall recover." This to do, was it that Philip could npt 
 give ; but the apostles could, and as appears by this place, effectually did 
 to every man that truly believed and was by a minister of Christ hjwn-; 
 self baptized : which power either Christ's ministers in this age cannot 
 confer, or else there are very few true believers, or Christ hath very few 
 ministers. 
 
 That the first deacons were chosen not by the apostles, but by a congre- 
 gation of the disciples, that is, of Christian men of all sorts, is manifest out 
 of Acts vi., where we read that the "Twelve," after the number of disciples 
 was multiplied, called them together, and having told them that it was not 
 fit that the apostles should leave the word of God and serve tables,^said unto 
 them (verse 3), " Brethren, look you out among you seven men of honest 
 report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over 
 this business." Here it is manifest, that though the apostles declared them 
 elected ; yet the congregation chose them ; which also (verse 5) is more 
 expressly said, where it is written, that " the saying pleased the whole 
 multitude, and they chose seven, " &.z. 
 
 Under the Old Testament, the tribe of Levi were only capable of the 
 priesthood, and other inferior offices of the Church. The land was divided 
 amongst the other tribes, Levi excepted, which by the subdivision of the 
 tribe of Joseph into Ephraim and Manasseh, were still twelve. To the 
 tribe of Levi were assigned certain cities fpr their habitation, with the 
 suburbs for their cattle : but for their portion, they were to have the tenth ^ 
 of the fruits of the land of their brethren. Again, the priests for their " 
 maintenance had the tenth of that tenth, together with part of the oblations 
 and sacrifices. For God had said to Aaron (Numb, xviii. 20), " Thou shalt 
 have no inheritance in their land ; neither shalt thou have any part amongst 
 them ; I am thy part and thine inheritance amongst the children of Israel." 
 For God being then king, and having constituted the tribe of Levi, to be His 
 public ministers, He allowed them for their maintenanoe the public revenue, 
 that is to say, the part that God had reserved to himself ; which were tithes 
 and offerings: and that is it which is meant, where God saith, "lam 
 thine inheritance." And therefore to the Levites might not unfitly be 
 attributed the name of "clergy," from KXijpos, which signifieth lot or 
 inheritance ; not that they were heirs of the kingdom of God more than 
 other ; but that God's inheritance was their maintenance. Now seeing in 
 this time God himself was their king, and Moses, Aaron, and the succeeding 
 high priests were His lieutenants ; it is manifest that the right of tithes and 
 offerings was constituted by the civil power. 
 
 After their rejection of God in the demanding of a king, they enjoyed 
 still the same revenue ; but the right thereof was derived from that, that 
 the kings did never take it from them ; for the public revemSe was at the 
 
OF POWER £:CCLESIASTICAL. 243 
 
 disposing ot him that was the public person ; and that, till the Captivity, 
 was the king. And again, after the return from the Captivity, they paid 
 their tithes as before to the priest. Hitherto therefore Church livings were 
 determined by the civil sovereign. 
 
 Of the maintenance of our Saviour and His apostles, we read only they 
 had a purse, which was carried by Judas Iscariot ; and that of the apostles, 
 such as were fishermen did sometimes use their trade ; and that when our 
 Saviour sent the twelve apostles to preach, He forbad them (Matt, x^g, 10) 
 " to carry gold and silver and brass in their purses, for that the workman 
 is worthy of his hire." By which it is probable, theif ordinary maintenance 
 was not unsuitable to their employment ; for their employment was (verse 8) 
 " freely to give, because they had freely received ;" and their maintenance 
 was the "free gift" of 'those that believed the good tiding they carried 
 about of the coming of the Messiah their Saviour. To which we may add, 
 that which was contributed out of gratitude by such as our Saviour had 
 healed of diseases ; of which are mentioned (Luke viii. 2, 3), ' ' Certain 
 women which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities ; Mai-y 
 Magdalen, out of whom went seven devils ; and Joanna the wife of Chuza, 
 Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto Him 
 of their substance." - 
 
 After our Saviour's ascension, the Christians of every city lived in com- 
 mon (Acts iv. 34, 35) upon the money which was made of the sale of their 
 lands and possessions, and laid down at the feet of the apostles, of gqod 
 will, not of duty; for, "whilst the land remained," saith St. Peter to 
 Ananias (Acts v. '4), "was it not thine ? and after it was sold, was it not 
 in thy power?" which showeth he needed not have saved his land nor his 
 money by lying, as not being bound to contribute anything at all unless he 
 had pleased. And as in the time ol the apostles, so also all the time down- 
 ward till after Constantino the Great, we shall find that the maintenance of 
 the bishops and pastors of the Christian Church was nothing but the volun- 
 tary contribution of them that had embraced their doctrine. There was yet 
 no mention of tithes : but such was in the time of Constantine and his sons 
 the affection of Christians to their pastors, as Ammianus Marcellinus saith, 
 describing the sedition of Damasus and Ursicinus about the bishopric, that 
 it was worth their contention, in that the bishops of those times, by the 
 liberality of theit flock, and especially of matrons, lived splendidly, were 
 carried in coaches, and were sumptuous in their fare and apparel. 
 
 But here may some ask, whether the pastors were then bound to live 
 upon voluntary contribution, as upon alms ; " For who," saith St. Paul 
 (I Cor. ix. 7), " goeth to war at his own charges? or wlio feedeth a flock, 
 and eateth not of the milk of the flock ? " And again (verse 13), " Do ye 
 not know that they which minister about holy things, live of the things of 
 the temple ; and tiey which wait at the altar, partake with the altar ; " that 
 is to say, have part of that which is offered at the altar for their main- 
 tenance? And then he concludeth (verse 14), "Even so hath the Lord 
 appointed, that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. " 
 From which place may be inferred indeed that the pastors of the Church 
 ought to be maintained by their flocks ; but not that the pastors were to 
 determine either the quantity or the kind of their own allowance, and be, as 
 it were, their own carvers. Their allowance must needs therefore be deter- 
 mined either by the gratitude and liberality of every particular man of their 
 flock, or by the whole congregation. By the whole congregation it could 
 not be, because their acts were then no laws ; therefore the maintenance of 
 pastors before emperors and civil sovereigns had made laws to settle it, was 
 nothing but benevolence. They that served at the altar lived on what was 
 offered. So may the pastors also take what is offered them by their flock ; 
 
244 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 but not exact what is not offered. In what court should they sue for it, 
 who had no tribunals ? Or, if they had arbitrators amongst themselves, 
 who should execute their judgments when they had no power to arm their 
 officers? It remaineth, therefore, that there could be no certain mainte- 
 nance assigned to any pastors of the Church but by the whole congrega- 
 tion ; and then only when their decrees should have the force, not only of 
 "canons," but also of "laws;" which laws could not be niade but by 
 emperors, kings, or other civil sovereigns. The right of tithes in Moses' 
 law could not be applied to the then ministers of the gospel ; because Moses 
 and the high priests were the civil sovereigns of tlie people under God, 
 whose kingdom amongst the Jews was present ; whereas the kingdom of 
 God by Christ is yet to come. 
 
 Hitherto hath been shown what the pastors of the Chiurch are ; what are 
 the points of their commission, as that they were to preach, to teach, to 
 baptize, to be presidents in their several congregations ; what is ecclesias- 
 tical censure, viz., excommunication, that is to say, in those places where 
 Christianity was forbidden by the civil laws, a putting of themselves out of 
 the company of the excommunicate, and where Christianity was by the civil 
 law commanded, a putting the excommunicate out of the congregations of 
 Christians ; who elected the pastors and ministers of the Church, tli?.t it was 
 the congregation ; who consecrated and blessed them, that it was the 
 pastor; what was their due revenue, that it was none but their own 
 possessions, and their own labour, and the voluntary contributions of devout 
 and grateful Christians. We are to consider now what office in the Church 
 those persons have, who being civil sovereigns, have embraced also the 
 Christian faith. 
 
 And first, we are to remember, that the right of judging what doctrines 
 are fit for peace, and to be taught the subjects, is in all commonwealths in- 
 separably annexed, as hath been already proved (chapter xviii.), to the 
 sovereign power civil, whether it be in one man, or in one assembly of men. 
 For it is evident to the meanest capacity that men's actions are derived from 
 the opinions they have of the good or evil, which from those actions redound 
 unto themselves : and consequently, men that are once possessed of an 
 opinion, that their obedience to the sovereign power will be more hurtful to 
 them than their disobedience, will disobey the laws, and thereby overthrow 
 the commonwealth, and introduce confusion and civil war ; for the avoiding 
 whereof, all civil government was ordained. And therefore in all common- 
 wealths of the heathen, tlie sovereigns have had the name of pastors of the 
 people, because there was no subject that could lawfully teach the people, 
 but by their permission and authority. 
 
 This right of the heathen kmgs cannot be thought taken from them by 
 their conversion' to the faith of Christ ; who never ordained that kings, for 
 believing in Him, should be deposed, that is, subjected to any but himself, 
 or, which is all one, be deprived of -ihe power necessary for the conserva- 
 tion of peace amongst their subjects, and for their defence against foreign 
 enemies. And therefore Christian kings are still the supreme pastors of their 
 people, and have power to ordain Avhat pastors they please, to teach the 
 Church, that is, to teach the people committed to their charge. 
 
 Again, let the right of choosing them be, as before the conversion of kings 
 in the Church ; for so it was in the time of the apostles themselves, as hath 
 been shown already in this chapter ; even so also the right will be in the 
 civil sovereign. Christian. For in that he is a Christian, he allows the 
 teaching ; and in that he is the sovereign, which is as much as to say, the 
 Church by representation, the teachers he elects are elected by the Church. 
 And when an assembly of Christians choose their pastor in a Christian 
 commonwealth, it is the sovereign that electeth him, because it is done by 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 245 
 
 his authority ; in the same manner, as when a town choose their mayor, it 
 is the act of liim that hath the sovereign power : for every act done, is the 
 act of him, without whose consent it is invalid. And therefore whatsoever 
 examples may be drawn out of history concerning the election of pastors 
 by the people, or by the clergy, they are no arguments against the right 
 of any civil sovereign, because they that elected them did it by his 
 authority. 
 
 Seeing then in every Christian commonwealth, the civil sovereign is the 
 supreme pastor, to whose charge the whole flock of his subjects is com- 
 mitted, and consequently that it is by his authority that all other pastors 
 are made, and have power to teach, and perform all other pastoral offices ; 
 it foUoweth also, that it is from the civil sovereign that all other pastors 
 derive their right of teaching, preaching, and other functions pertaining to 
 that office, and that they are but his ministers ; in the same manner as the 
 magistrates of towns, judges in courts of justice, and commanders of 
 armies, are all but ministers of him that is the magistrate of the whole 
 commonwealth, judge of all causes, and commander of the whole militia, 
 which is always the civil sovereign. And the reason hereof is not because 
 they that teach, but because they that are to learn, are his subjects. For 
 let it be supposed that a Christian king commit the authority of ordaining 
 pastors in his dominions to another king, as divers Christian kings allow 
 that power to the Pope ; he doth not thereby constitute a pastor over him- 
 self, nor a sovereign pastor over his people ; for that were to deprive himself 
 of the civil power ; which, depending on the opinion men have of their duty 
 to him and the fear they have of punishment in another world, would 
 depend also on the skill and loyalty of doctors, who are no less subject, not 
 only to ambition, but also to ignorance, than any other sort of men. So 
 that where a stranger hath authority to appoint teachers, it is given him by 
 the sovereign in whose dominions he teacheth. Christian doctors are our 
 schoolmasters to Christianity ; but kings are fathers of families, and may 
 receive schoolmasters for their subjects from the recommendation of a 
 stranger, but not from the command ; ^specially when the ill teaching them 
 shall redound to the great and manifest profit of him that recommends 
 them : nor can they be obliged to retain them, longer than it is for the 
 public good ; the care of which they stand so long charged withal, as they 
 retain any other essential right of the sovereignty. 
 
 If a man therefore should ask a pastor, in the execution of his office, as 
 the chief priests and elders of the people (Matt. xxi. 23) asked our Saviour, 
 "By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this 
 ■ authority?" he can make no other just answer, but that he doth it by the 
 authority of the commonwealth, given him by the king, or assembly that 
 representeth it. All pastors, except the supreme, execute their charges in 
 the right, that is, by the authority of the civil sovereign, that is, jure civili. 
 But the king, and every other sovereign, executeth his office of supreme 
 pastor by immediate authority from God, that is to say, in " God's right " or 
 jure divino. And therefore none but kings can put into their titles a 
 mark of their submission to God only, Dei gralid rex, &c. Bishops ought 
 to say in the beginning of their mandates, " By the favour of the King's 
 Majesty, bishop of such a diocese;" or as civil ministers, "in His 
 Majesty's name." For in saying, Dtvind provideniid, which is the same 
 with Z'«^ra/ja,.though disguised, they deny to have received their authority 
 from the civil state ; and slily slip off the collar of their civil subjection, 
 contrary to the unity and defence of the commonwealth. 
 
 But if every Christian sovereign be the sujjreme pastor of his own sub- 
 jects, it seemeth that he hath also the authority not only to preach, which 
 perhaps no man will deny, but also to baptize and to administer the sacra* 
 
246 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 ment of the Lord's Supper, and to consecrate both temples and pastors to 
 God's service, which most men deny ; partly because they use not to do ir, 
 and partly because the administration of sacraments, arid consecration of 
 persons and places to holy uses, requireth the imposition of such men's 
 hands as by the like imposition successively from the time of the apostles 
 have been ordained to the like ministry. For proof therefore that Christian 
 kings have power to baptize, and to consecrate, I am to render a 
 reason, both why they use not to do it, and how, without the ordinary 
 ceremony of imposition of hands, they are made capable of doing it when 
 they will. 
 
 There is no doubt but any king. In case he were skilful in the sciences, 
 might by the same right of his office read lectures of them himself, by which 
 he authorizeth others to read them in the universities. Nevertheless, 
 because the care of the sum of the business of the commonwealth taketh 
 up his whole time, it were not convenient for him to apply himself in person 
 to that particular. A king may also, if he please, sit in judgment to hear 
 and determine all manner of causes, as well as give others authority to do 
 it in his name ; but that the charge that lieth upon him of command and 
 government, constrain him to be continually at the helm, and to commit the 
 ministerial offices to others under him. In the like manner our Saviour, 
 who surely had power to baptize, baptized none (John iv. 2) himself, but 
 sent His apostles and disciples to baptize. So also St. Paul, by the 
 necessity of preaching in divers and far distant places, baptized few ; 
 amongst all the Corinthians he baptized only (l Cor. i. 14, 16) Crispus, 
 Gains, and Stephanas, and the reason was (l Cor. 1. 17) because his 
 principal charge was to preach. Whereby it is manifest that the greater 
 charge, such as is the government of the Church, is a dispensation for the 
 less. The reason therefore why Christian kings use not to baptize is 
 evident, and the same for which at this day there are few baptized by 
 bishops, and by the Pope fewer. 
 
 And as concerning imposition of hands, whether it be needful for the 
 authorizing of a king to baptize and consecrate, we may consider thus : 
 
 Imposition of hands was a most ancient public ceremony amongst the 
 Jews, by which was designed and made certain the person or other thing 
 intended in a man's prayer, blessing, sacrifice, consecration, condemnation, 
 or other speech. So Jacob, in blessing the children of Joseph (Gen. xlviii. 
 _i4)j " laid his right hand on Ephraim the younger, and his left hand on 
 Manasseh the first-born ; " and this he did " wittingly " (though they were 
 so presented to him by Joseph, as he was forced in doing it to stretch out 
 his arms across), to design to whom he intended the greater blessing. So 
 also in the sacrificing of the burnt-ofifering, Aaron is commanded (Exod. 
 xxix. 10) "to lay his hands on the head of the bullock; " and (verse 15) 
 "to lay his hand on the head of the ram." The same is also said again 
 (Levit. i. 4, and viii. 14). Likewise Moses, when he ordained Joshua to be 
 captain of the Israelites, that is, consecrated him to God's service (Numb, 
 xxvii. 23), " laid his hands upon him and gave him his charge," designing 
 and rendering certain who it was they were to obey in war. And in the 
 consecration of the Levites (Numb. viii. 10), God commanded that "the 
 children of Israel should put their hands upon the Levites." And in the 
 condemnation of him that had blasphemed the Lord (Levit. xxiv. 14), God 
 commanded that " all that heard him should lay their hands on his head, 
 and that all the congregation should stone him." And why should they 
 only that heard him lay their hands upon him, and not rather a priest, 
 Levite, or other minister of justice, but that none else were able to design 
 and to demonstrate to the eyes of the congregation who it was that had 
 blasphemed and ought to die ? And to design a man or any other thing by 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 247 
 
 the hand to the eye, is less subject to mistake than when it is done to the 
 ear by a name. 
 
 And so much was this ceremony observed, that in blessing the whole 
 congregation at once, which cannot be done by laying on of hands, yet 
 Aaron (Levit. ix. 22) " did lift up his hands toward the people when he 
 blessed them." And we read also of the like ceremony of consecration of 
 temples amongst the heathen, as that the priest laid his hands on some post 
 of the temple, all the while he was uttering the words of consecration. 
 So natural it is to design any individual thing, rather by the hand, to 
 assure the eyes, than by words to inform the ear, in matters of God's public 
 service. 
 
 This ceremony was not therefore new in our Saviour's time. For Jairus 
 (Mark v. 23), whose daughter was sick, besought our Saviour not to heal 
 her, but " to lay His hands upon her that she might be healed." And (Malt. 
 xix. 13), " they brought unto Him little children that He should put His 
 hands on them and pray." 
 
 According to this ancient rite, the apostles, and presbyters, and the pres- 
 bytery itself, laid hands on them whom they ordained pastors, and withal 
 prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost ; and that not only 
 once, but sometimes oftener, when a new occasion was presented : but the 
 end was still the same, namely a punctual and religious designation of the 
 person, ordained either to the pastoral charge in general, or to a particular 
 mission. So (Acts vi. 6), " The apostles prayed, and laid their hands " on 
 the seven deacons ; which was done, not to give them the Holy Ghost (for 
 they were full of the Holy Ghost before they were chosen, as appeareth im- 
 mediately before, verse 3), but to design them to that office. And after Philip 
 the deacon had converted certain persons in Samaria, Peter and John went 
 down (Acts viii. 17), "and laid their hands on them, and they received the 
 Holy Ghost." And not only an apostle, but a presbyter had this power : 
 for St. Paul adviseth Timothy (l Tim. v. 22), "lay hands suddenly on no 
 man ;" that is, design no man rashly to the office of a pastor. The whole 
 presbytery laid their hands on Timothy, as we read i Tim. iv. 14 : but this is 
 to be understood, as that some did it by the appointment of the presbytery, 
 and most likely their irpoeariis, or prolocutor, which it may be was St. Paul 
 himself. For in his second Bpistle to Timothy, chap. i. 6, he saith to 
 him, " Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the laying on of my 
 hands:" where note by the way, that by the Holy Ghost, is not meant the 
 third person in the Trinity, but the gifts necessary to the pastoral office. 
 We read also, that St. Paul had imposition of hands twice ; once from 
 Ananias at Damascus (Acts ix. 17, t8), at the time of his baptism; and 
 again (Acts xiii. 3) at Antioch, when he was first sent out to preach. The 
 use then of this ceremony, considered in the ordination of pastors, was to 
 design the person to whom they gave such power. But if there had been 
 then any Christian that had had the power of teaching before ; the 
 baptizing of him, that is, the making him a Christian, had given him no 
 new power, but had only caused him to preach true doctrine, that is, to use 
 his power aright ; and therefore the imposition of hands had been un- 
 necessary ; baptism itself had been sufficient. But every sovereign, before 
 Christianity, had the power of teaching, and ordaining teachers ; and there- 
 fore Christianity gave them no new right, but only directed them in the 
 way of teaching truth ; and consequently they needed no imposition of 
 hands, besides that which is done in baptism, to authorize them to exercise 
 any part of the pastoral function, as namely, to baptize and consecrate. 
 And in the Old Testament, though the priest only had right to consecrate, 
 during the time that the sovereignty was in the high priest ; yet it was 
 not so when the sovereignty was in the king. For we read (1 Kings 
 
248 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 viii.) tliat Solomon blessed the people, consecrated the Temple, and pro- 
 nounced that public prayer which is the pattern now for consecration of 
 all Christian churches and chapels : whereby it appears, he had not only 
 the right of ecclesiastical government, but also of exercising ecclesiastical 
 functions. 
 
 From this consolidation of the right politic and ecclesiastic iri Christian 
 sovereigns, it is evident, they have all manner of power over their subjects, 
 that can be given to man, for the government of men's external actions, 
 both in policy and religion ; and may make such laws as themselves shall 
 judge fittest, for the government of their own subjects, both as they are the 
 commonwealth, and as they are the Church ; for both State and Church are 
 the same men. 
 
 If they please, therefore, they may, as many Christian kings now do, com- 
 mit the government of their subjects in matters of religion to the Pope ; 
 but then the Pope is in that point subordinate to them, and exerciseth that 
 charge in another's dominiony»« civili, in the right of the civil sovereign ; 
 not jure divino, in God's right ; and may therefore be discharged of that 
 office, when the sovereign, for the good of his subjects, shall think it 
 necessary. They may also, if they please, commit the care of religion to 
 one supreme pastor, or to an assembly of pastors ; and give them what 
 power over the Church, or one over another, they think most convenient ; 
 and what titles of hononr, as of archbishops, bishops, priests, or presbyters, 
 they will ; and make such laws for their maintenance, either by tithes or 
 otherwise, as they please, so they do it out of a sincere conscience, of which 
 God only is the judge. It is the civil sovereign that is to appoint judges 
 and interpreters of the canonical Scriptures ; for it is he that maketh them 
 laws. It is he also that giveth strength to excommunications ; which but 
 for such laws and punishments, as may humble obstinate libertines, and 
 reduce them to union with the rest of the Church, would be contemned. In 
 sum, he hath the supreme power in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil, 
 as far as concerneth actions and words, for those only are known and may 
 be accused ; and of that which cannot be accused, there is no judge at all 
 but God, that knoweth the heart. And these rights are incident to all 
 sovereigns, whether monarchs or assemblies : for they that are the repre- 
 sentants of a Christian people, are representants of the Church: for a 
 Church and a commonwealth of Christian people are the same thing. 
 
 Though this that I have here said, and in other places of this book, 
 seem clear enough for the asserting of the supreme ecclesiastical power to 
 Christian sovereigns ; yet because the Pope of Rome's challenge to that 
 power universally hath been maintained chiefly, and, I think, as strongly as 
 is possible, by Cardinal Bellarmine, in his controversy, De Summo Pontifice; 
 I have thought it necessary, as briefiy as I can, to examine the grounds and 
 strength of his discourse. 
 
 Of five books he hath written of this subject, the first containeth three 
 questions : one, which is simply the best government, " Monarchy," 
 "Aristocracy," or "Democracy;" and concludeth for neither, but for a 
 government mixed of all three : another, which of these is the best govern- 
 ment of the Church ; and concludeth for the mixed, but which should most 
 participate of monarchy ; the third, whether in this mixed monarchy St. 
 Peter had the place of monarch. Concerning his first conclusion, I have 
 already sufficiently proved (chapter xviii. ) that all governments which men 
 are bound to obey are simple and absolute. In monarchy there is but one 
 man supreme ; and all other men that have any kind of power in the state 
 have it by his commission, during his pleasure, and execute it in his name : 
 and in aristocracy and democracy but one supreme assembly, with the 
 same power that in monarchy belongeth to the monarch, which is not ii 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 249 
 
 mixed but an absolute sovereignty. And of the three sorts which i; the 
 best is not to be disputed, wliere any one of them is aheady establislied ; 
 but the present ought always to be preferred, maintained, and accounted 
 best ; because it is against both the law of Nature and the divine positive 
 law to do anything tending to the subversion thereof. Besides, it raaketh 
 nothing to the power of any pastor,- unless he have the civil sovereignty, 
 what kind of government is the best ; because thair calling is not to govern 
 men by commandment but to teach them, and persuade them by arguments, 
 and leave it to them to consider whether they sliall embrace or reject the 
 doctrine taught. For monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, do mark out 
 unto us three sorts of sovereigns, not of pastors ; or, as we may say, three 
 sorts of masters of families, not three sorts of schoolmasters for their 
 children. 
 
 Aud therefore the second conclusion, concerning ihe best form of govern- 
 ment of tlie Church, is nothing to the question of the Pope's power without 
 his own dominions. For in all other commonwealths his power, if he have any 
 at all, i-i that of the schoolmaster only, and not of the master of the family. 
 
 For the third conclusion, which is, that St. Peter was monarch of the 
 Church, he bringeth for his chief argument the place of St. Matthew (chap, 
 xvi. 18, 19), "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church," 
 &c. " And I will give thee the keys of heaven ; whatsoever thou shalt bind 
 on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on 
 earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Which place, well considered, proveth 
 no more, but that the Church of Christ hath for foundation one only 
 article ; namely, that which Peter in the name of all the apostles pro- 
 fessing, gave occasion to our Saviour to speak the words here cited. 
 Which that we may clearly understand, we are to consider that our 
 Saviour preached by himself, by John the Baptist, and by His apostles, 
 nothing but this article of faith, " that He was the Christ ; " all 
 other articles requiring faith no otherwise than as founded on that. 
 John began first (Matt. iii. 2), preaching only this, " the kingdom of God 
 is at hand." Tlien our Saviour himself (Matt. iv. 17) preached the same : 
 and to His twelve apostles, when He gave them their commission (Matt. 
 X. 7), there is no mention of preaching any other article but that. This was 
 the fundamental article, that is the foundation of the Church's faith. After- 
 wards the apostles being returned to Him, He (Matt. xvi. 13) asketh them 
 all, not Peter only, "who men said He was;" and they answered that 
 " some said He was John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or 
 one of the prophets." Then (verse 15) He asked them all again, not Peter 
 only, " Whom say ye that I am ?" Therefore St. Peter answered for them 
 all, " Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God;'' which I said is the 
 foundation of the faith of the whole Church ; from which our Saviour takes 
 the occasion of saying, "upon this stone I will build my Church:" by 
 which it is manifest, that by the foundation-stone of the Church was meant 
 the fundamental article of the Church's faith. But why then, will some 
 object, doth our Saviour interpose these words, " thou art Peter?" If the 
 original of this text had been rigidly translated, the reason would easily 
 have appeared. We are therefore -to consider, that the apostle Simon was 
 sumamedj" Stone, " which is the signification of the Syriac word " Cephas," 
 and of the Greek worn IleTpoj. Our Saviour therefore, after the confes- 
 sion of that fundamental article, alluding to His name, said (as if it were in 
 Enghsh) thus, " Thou art '.stone,' and upon this stone I will build my Church : " 
 which is as much as to say, this article, that " I am the Christ," is the 
 foundation of all the faith I require in those that are to be members of my 
 Church. Neither is this allusion to a name an unusual thing in common 
 speech. But it had been a strange and obscure speech if our Saviour, 
 
2SO OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 intending to build His Church on the person of St. Peter, had said, "Thoit 
 ait a stone, and upon this stone I will build my Church ; " when it was so 
 obvious, without ambiguity, to have said, "I will build my Church on 
 thee : '' and yet there had been still the same allusion to His name. 
 
 And for the following words, " I will give thee the keys of heaven,'' _&c., 
 it is.no more than what our Saviour gave also to all the rest of His disciples 
 (Matt, xviii. l8), " Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in 
 heaven : and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." 
 But howsoever this be interpreted, there is no doubt but the power here 
 granted belongs to all supreme pastors ; such as are all Christian civil 
 sovereigns in their own dominions. Insomuch, as if St. Peter, or our 
 Saviour himself, had converted any of them to believe Him, and to 
 acknowledge His kingdom ; yet, because His kingdom is not of this world, 
 He had left the supreme care of converting His subjects to none but him ; 
 or else He must have deprived him of the sovereignty, to which the right 
 of teaching is inseparably annexed. And thus much in refutation of his 
 first book, wherein he would prove St. Peter to have been the monarch 
 universal of the Church, that is to say, of all the Christians in the world. 
 
 The second book hath two conclusions : one, that St. Peter was bishop 
 of Rome, and there died ; the other, that the Popes of Rome are his suc- 
 cessors. Both which have been disputed by others. But supposing them 
 true ; yet if by Bishop of Rome, be understood either the monarch of the 
 Church, or the supreme pastor of it : not Silvesterj but Constantine, who 
 was the first Christian emperor, was that bishop ; and as Constantine, so 
 all other Christian emperors were of right supreme bishops of the Roman 
 empire. I say of the Roman empire, not of all Christendom, for other 
 Christian sovereigns had the same right in their several territories, as to an 
 office essentially adherent to their sovereignty. Which shall serve for 
 answer to his second book. 
 
 In the third book lie handleth the question, whether the Pope be Anti- 
 christ? For my part, I see no argument that proves he is so, in that 
 sense the Scripture useth the name ; nor will I take any argument from 
 the quality of Antichrist to contradict the authority he exerciseth, or hath 
 heretofore exercised in the dominions of any other prince or state. 
 
 It is evident that the prophets of the Old Testament foretold, and the 
 Jews expected a Messiah, that is, a Christ, that should re-establish amongst 
 them the kingdom of God, which had been rejected by them in the time 
 of Samuel, when they required a king after the manner of other nations. 
 This expectation of theirs made them obnoxious to the imposture of all 
 such as had both the ambition to attempt the attaining of the kingdom, 
 and the heart to deceive the people by counterfeit miracles, by hypo- 
 critical life, or by orations and doctrine plausible. Our Saviour, there- 
 fore, and His apostles, forewarned men of false prophets and of false 
 Christs. False Christs are such as pretend to be the " Christ," but are 
 not, and are called properly " Antichrists ;" in such sense, as when there 
 happeneth a schism in the Church, by the election of two popes, the one 
 calleth the other " Antipapa," or the false Pope. And therefore Anti- 
 christ in the proper signification hath two essential marks ; one, that he 
 denieth Jesus to be Christ ; and another that he professeth himself to be 
 Christ. The first mark is set down by St. John in his first Epistle, iv. 3, 
 " Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, 
 is not of God ; and this is the spirit of Antichrist." The other mark is 
 expressed in the words of our Saviour (Matt. xxiv. 5), "many shall come 
 in iny name, saying, I am Christ;" and again (verse 23), "If any man 
 shall say unto you, lo ! here is Christ, and there is Christ, believe it not," 
 And therefore Antichrist must be a false Christ ; that is, some one of them 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 251 
 
 that shall pretend themselves to be Chi ist. And out of these two marks, 
 " to deny Jesus to be the Christ," and " to affirm himself to be the Christ," 
 it followeth, that he must also be an "adversary of Jesus the true Christ," 
 which is another usual signification of the word Antichrist. But of these 
 many Antichrists, there is one special one, h Amxpia-To!, " the Antichrist," 
 or " Antichrist " definitely, as one certain person, not indefinitely ' ' an Anti- 
 christ." Now, seeing the Pope of Rome neither pretendeth himself, nor 
 denieth Jesus to be the Christ, I perceive not how he can be called Anti- 
 christ ; by which word is not meant, one that falsely pretendeth to be " his 
 lieutenant " or "vicar-general," but to be " He." There is also some mark 
 of the time of this special Antichrist, as (Matt. xxiv. 15), when that 
 abominable destroyer spoken of by Daniel (Dan. ix. 27) shall stand in the 
 holy place, and such tribulation as was not since the beginning of the 
 world, nor ever shall be again, insomuch as if it were to last long (Matt. 
 xxiv. 22) " no flesh could be saved ; but for the elect's sake those days 
 shall be shortened," made fewer. But that tribulation is not yet come ; 
 for it is to be followed immediately (verse 29) by a darkening of the sun 
 and moon, a falling of the stars, a concussion of the heavens, and the 
 glorious coming again of our Saviour in the clouds. And therefore " the 
 Antichrist " is not yet come ; whereas, many Popes are both come and 
 gone. It is true, the Pope, in taking upon him to give laws to all Christian 
 kings and nations, usurpeth a kingdom in this world, which Christ took 
 not on Him ; but he doth it not " as Christ," but as "for Christ," wherein 
 there is nothing of " the Antichrist." 
 
 In the fourth book, to prove the Pope to be the supreme judge in all 
 questions of faith and manners, "which is as much as to be the absolute 
 monarch of all Christians in the world," he bringeth three propositions : the 
 first, that his judgments are infallible : the second, that he can make very 
 laws,- and punish those that observe them not : the third, that our Saviour 
 conferred all jurisdicticion ecclesiastical on the Pope of Rome. 
 
 For the infallibility of his judgments, he allegeth the Scriptures : and first, 
 that of Luke xxii. 31, 32 : " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired you, that he 
 may sift you as wheat ; but I have; prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not ; 
 and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." This, according to 
 Bellarmine's exposition, is, that Christ gave here to Simon Peter two privi- 
 leges : one, that neither his faith should fail, nor the faith of any of his suc- 
 cessors : the other, that neither he, nor any of his successors, should ever 
 define any point concerning faith or manners erroneously, or contrary to the 
 definition of a former Pope : which is a strange and very much strained 
 interpretation. But he that with attention readeth that chapter, shall find 
 there is no place in the whole Scripture that maketh more against the Pope's 
 authority than this very place. The Priests and Scribes seeking to kill our 
 Saviour at the Passover, and Judas possessed with a resolution to betray 
 Him, and the day of killing the Passover being come, our Saviour cele- 
 brated the same with His apostles, which He said, till the kingdom of God 
 was come He would do no more ; and withal told them that one of them 
 was to betray Him. Hereupon they questioned which of them it should 
 be ; and withal, seeing the next Passover their Master would celebrate 
 should be when He was king, entered into a contention who should then be 
 the greatest man. Our Saviour therefore told them that the kings of the 
 nations had dominion over their subjects, and are called by a name in 
 Hebrew, that signifies bountiful ; "but I cannot be so to you, you must 
 endeavour to serve one another ; I ordain you a kingdom, but it is such as 
 my Father hath ordained me ; a kingdom that I am now to purchase with 
 my blood, and not to possess till my second coming ; then ye shall eat and 
 drink at my table, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel," 
 
2S4 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 AiidthenaddressinghimselftoSt. Peter, He saith: "Simon, Simon, Satail 
 seeks, by suggesting a present domination, to weaken your faith of the 
 future ; but I have pray?d for thee, that thy faith shall not fail ; thou 
 therefore note this, being converted, and understanding my kingdom as ol 
 another world, confirm the same faith in thy brethren." To which St. Peter 
 answered, as one that no more expected any authority in this vrorld, 
 "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, not only to prison, but to death. ' 
 Whereby it is manifest St. Peter had not only no jurisdiction given him in 
 this world, but a charge to teach all the other apostles that they also should 
 have none. And for the infallibility of St. Peter's sentence definitive 
 in matter of faith, there is no more to be attributed to it out of thtB text 
 than that Peter should continue in the belief of this point, namely, that 
 Christ should come again and possess the kingdom at the day of judgment, 
 which was not given by this text to all his successors ; for we see they claim 
 it in the world that now is. 
 
 The second place is that of Matt. xvi. i8, "Thou art Peter, and upon 
 this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it." By which, as I have already shown in this chapter, is proved 
 no more, than that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the confession 
 of Peter, which gave occasion to that speech; namely this, that "Jesus is 
 Christ the Son of God." 
 
 The third text is John xxi. l6, 17: "Feed my sheep;" which contains 
 no more but a commission of teaching. And if we grant the rest of the 
 apostles to be contained in that name of " sheep ; " then it is the supreme 
 power of teaching : but it was only for the time that there were no Christian 
 sovereigns already possessed of that supremacy. But I have already proved 
 that Christian sovereigns are in their own dominions the supreme pastors, 
 and instituted thereto, by virtue of their being baptized, though without 
 other imposition of hands. For such imposition, being a ceremony of 
 designing the person, is needless, when he is already designed to the power 
 of teaching what doctrine he will, by his institution to an absolute power 
 over his subjects. For as I have proved before, sovereigns are supreme 
 teachers, in general, by their office ; and therefore oblige themselves, by 
 their baptism, to teach the doctrine of Christ : and when they suffer others 
 to teach their people, they do it at the peril of their own souls ; for it is at 
 the hands of the heads of families that God will require the account of the 
 instruction of His children and servants. It is of Abraham himself, not of 
 i^hireling, diat God saith (Gen. xviii. 19), " I know him fhat he will com- 
 mand his children, and his household after him, that they keep the way of 
 the Lord, and do justice and judgment. 
 
 The fourth place is that of Exod. xxviii. 30 : " Thou shall put in the 
 breast-plate of judgment, the Urim and the Thummim ; " which he saith is 
 interpreted by the Septuagint HjKavai Kai aKiiBnav ; that is, " evidence and 
 truth ; " and thence concludeth, God hath given evidence and truth, which 
 is almost infallibility, to the high priest. But be it evidence and truth 
 itself that was given ; or be it but admonition to the priest to endeavour to 
 inform himself clearly, and give judgment uprightly ; yet in that it was 
 given to the high priest, it was given to the civil sovereign ; (for such next 
 under God was the high priest in the commonwealth of Israel) ; and is an 
 argument for evidence and truth, that is, for the ecclesiastical supremacy of 
 civil sovereigns over their own subjects, against the pretended power of the 
 Pope. These are all the texts he bringeth for the infallibiUty of the judg- 
 ment of the Pope in point of faith. 
 
 For the infallibility of his judgment concerning manners, he bringeth one 
 text, which is that of John xvi. 13: " When the Spirit of truth is come, he 
 will lead you into all truth : " where, saith he, by "all truth," is meant, at 
 
OP POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 253 
 
 least "all truth necessary to salvation." But with this mitigation, he 
 attributeth no more infallibility to the Pope, than to any man that pro- 
 fesseth Christianity and is not to be damned. For if any man err in any 
 point, wherein not to err is necessary to salvation, it is impossible he should 
 be saved ; for that only is necessary to salvation, without which to be saved 
 is impossible. What points these are, I shall declare out of the Scripture 
 in the chapter following. In this place I say no more, but that though it 
 were granted, the Pope could not possibly teach any errcr at all, yet doth 
 not this entitle him to any jurisdiction in the dominions of another prince; 
 unless we shall also say, a man is obliged in conscience to set on work upon 
 all occasions the best workman, even then also when he hath formerly 
 promised his work to another. 
 
 Besides the text, he argueth from reason, thus. If the Pope could err in 
 necessaries, then Christ hath not sufficiently provided for the Church's 
 salvation ; because He hath commanded her to follow the Pope's directions. 
 But this reason is invalid, unless he show when and where Christ com- 
 manded that, or took at all any notice of a Pope. Nay. granting whatso- 
 ever was given to St. Peter was given to the Pope ; yet seeing there is in 
 the Scripture no command to any man to obey St. Peter, no man can be 
 just that obeyeth him when his commands are contrary to those of his 
 lawful sovereign. 
 
 Lastly, it hath not been declared by the Church, nor by the Pope him- 
 self, that he is the civil sovereign of all the Christians in the world ; and 
 therefore all Christians are not bound to acknowledge his jurisdiction in 
 point of manners. For the civil sovereignty, and supreme judicature in 
 controversies of manners, are the same thing : and the makers of civil laws, 
 are not only declarers, but also makers of the justice and injustice of 
 actions ; there being nothing in men's manners that makes them righteous 
 or unrighteous, but their conformity with the law of the sovereign. And 
 therefore, when the Pope challengeth supremacy in controversies of manners, 
 he teacheth men to disobey the civil sovereign ; which is an erroneous 
 doctrine, contrary to the many precepts of our Saviour and His apostles, 
 delivered to us in the Scripture. 
 
 To prove the Pope has pov/er to make laws, he allegeth many places ; as 
 first (Deut. xvii. 12), " The man that vrill do presumptuously, and will not 
 hearken unto the priest, that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy 
 God, or unto the judge, oven that man shall die ; and thou shalt put away 
 the evil from Israel." For answer whereunto, we are to remember that 
 the high priest, next and immediately under God, was the civil sovereign ; 
 and all judges were to be constituted by him. The words alleged sound 
 therefore thus : " The man that will presume to disobey tlie civil sovereign 
 for the time being, or any of his officers in the execution of their places, 
 that man shall die," &c. : which is clearly for the civil sovereignty, against 
 the universal power of the Pope. 
 
 Secondly, he allegeth that of Matt. xvi. ig, " Whatsoever ye shall bind," 
 &c., and interpreteth it for such "binding" as is attributed (Matt, xxiii. 4) 
 to the Scribes and Pharisees, "They bind heavy burthens, and grievous to 
 bt borne, and lay them on men's shoulders ;" by which is meant, he says, 
 making of laws ; and concludes thence that the Pope can make laws. But 
 this also maketh only for the legislative power of civil sovereigns. For the 
 Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' chair; but Moses next under God was 
 sovereign of the people of Israel : and therefore our Saviour commanded 
 them to do all that they should say, but not all that they should do : that 
 is, to obey their laws, but not follow their example. 
 
 The third place is John xxi. 16, "Feed my sheep;' which is not a 
 power to make laws, but a command to teach. Making laws belongs to 
 
254 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 the lord of the family ; who ,by his own discretion cliooseth his chaplain, as 
 also a schoolmaster to teach his children. 
 
 The fourth place (John xx. 2t) is against him. The words are, "As my 
 Father sent me, so send I you. " But our Saviour was sent to redeem by 
 His death such as should believe, and by His own and His apostles' 
 preaching, to prepare them for their entrance into His kingdom ; which 
 Heliimselfsaith, is not of this world, and hath taught us to pray for the 
 coming of it hereafter, though He refused (Acts i. 6, 7) to tell Ilis apostles 
 when it should come ; and in which, when it comes, the twelve apostles 
 shall sit on twelve thrones, every one perhaps as high as that of St. Peter, 
 to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Seeing then God the Father sent not 
 our Saviour to make laws in this present world, we may conclude from the 
 text, that neither did our Saviour send St. Peter to make laws here, but to 
 persuade men to expect His second coming with a steadfast faith ; and in 
 the meantime, if subjects, to obey their princes ; and if princes, both to 
 believe it themselves, aud to do their best to make their subjects do the 
 same ; which is the office of a bishop. Therefore this place maketh most 
 strongly for the joining of the ecclesiastical supremacy to the civil sove- 
 reignty, contrary to that which Cardinal Bellarmine allegeth it for. 
 
 The fifth place is Acts xv. 28j 29, ' ' It hath seemed good to the Holy 
 Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burthen, than these necessary 
 things, that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from 
 things strangled, and from fornication." Here he notes the word " laying 
 of burthens for the legislative power. But who is there, that reading this 
 text, can say this style of the apostles may not as properly be iised in giving 
 counsel as in making laws ? The style of a' law is, " we Command : " but, 
 " we think good," is the ordinary style of them that but give advice ; and 
 they lay a burthen that give advice, though it be conditional, that is, if they 
 to whom they give it, will attain their ends ; and such is the burthen of ab- 
 staining from things strangled, and from blood ; not absolute, but in case 
 they will not err. I have shown before (chapter xxv.) that law is dis- 
 tinguished from counsel in this, that the reason of a law is taken from the 
 design and benefit of him that prescribeth it ; but the reason of a counsel, 
 from the design and benefit of him to' whom the counsel is given. But here 
 the- apostles aim only at the benefit of the converted Gentiles, namely, their 
 salvation ; not at their own benefit, for having done their endeavour, they 
 shall have their reward, whether they be obeyed or not. And therefore the 
 acts of this council were not laws, but counsels. 
 
 'The sixth place is that of Rom. xiii., " Let every soul be subject to the 
 higher powers, for there is no power but of God ; " which is meant, 
 he saith, not only of secular, but also of ecclesiastical princes. To which I 
 answer, first, that there are no ecclesiastical princes but those that are also 
 civil sovereigns ; and their principalities exceed not the compass of then: 
 civil sovereignty ; without those bounds, though they may be received for 
 doctors, they cannot be acknowledged for princes For if the apostle had 
 meant we should be subject both to our own princes, and also to the Pope, 
 he had taught us a doctrine which Christ himself hath told us is im- 
 possible, namely, "to serve two masters." And though the apostle says in 
 another place (2 Cor. xiii. 10), " I write these things being absent, lest being 
 present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath 
 given me ; " it is not, that he challenged a power either to put to death, im- 
 prison, banish, whip, or fine any of them, which are punishments ; but only 
 to excommunicate, which, without the civil power, is no more but' a leaving 
 of their company, and having no more to do with them than with a heathen 
 man or a publican ; which in many occasions might be a greater pain to the 
 excommuTiicant than to the excommunicate. 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 255 
 
 The seventh place is I Cor. iv. 21, "Shall I come unto you with a rod, 
 or in love, and the spirit of lenity ? " But here again it is not the power of 
 a magistrate to punish offenders, that is meant by a rod ; but only the power 
 of excommunication, which is not in its own nature a punishment, but only 
 a denouncing of punishment, that Christ shall in6ict when He shall be in 
 possession of His kingdom, at the day of judgment. Nor then also shall it 
 be properly a punishment, as upon a subject that hath broken the law ; 
 but a revenge, as upon an enemy or revolter, that denieth the right of our 
 Saviour to the kingdom. And therefore this proveth not the legislative 
 power of any bishop that has not also the civil power. 
 
 The eighth place is I Tim. iii. 2, " A bishop must be the husband of 
 but one wife, vigilant, sober," &c. ; which he saith was a law. I thought 
 that none could make a law in the Chutch but the monarch of the Church, 
 St. Peter. But suppose this precept made by the authority of St. Peter, yet 
 I see no reason why to call it a law rather than an advice, seeing Timothy 
 was not a subject but a disciple of St. Paul ; nor the flock under the charge 
 of Timothy, his subjects in the kingdom, but his scholars in the school of 
 Christ. If all the precepts he giveth Timothy be laws, why is not this also 
 a law (i Tim. r. 23), " Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy 
 health's sake ? " And why are not also the precepts of good physicians so 
 many laws, but that it is not the imperative manner of speaking, but an 
 absolute subjection to a person, that maketh his precepts laws ? 
 
 In like manner, the ninth place (i Tim. v. 19), "Against an elder receive 
 not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses," is a wise precept, but 
 not a law. 
 
 The tenth place is Luke x. 16, " He that heareth you, heareth me ; apd 
 he that despiseth you, despiseth me.'' And there is no doubt but he that 
 despiseth the counsel ol those that are sent by Christ, despiseth the counsel 
 of Christ himself. But who are those now that are sent by Christ but such 
 as are ordained pastors by lawful authority? And who are lawfully 
 ordained that are not ordained by the sovereign pastor? And who is 
 ordained by the sovereign pastor in a Christian commonwealth that is not 
 ordained by the authority of the sovereign thereof? Out of this place there- 
 fore it foUoweth, that he which heareth his sovereign, being a Christian, 
 heareth Christ ; and he that despiseth the doctrine which his king, being a 
 Christian, authorizeth, despiseth the doctrine of Christ : which is not that 
 which Bellarmine intendeth here to prove, but the contrary. But all this 
 is nothing to a law. Nay more, a Christian king, as a pastor and teacher 
 of his subjects, makes not thereby his doctrines laws. He cannot oblige 
 men to believe ; though as a civil sovereign he may make laws suitable to 
 his doctrine, which may oblige men to certain actions, and sometimes to 
 such as they would not otherwise do, andi which he ought not to command ; 
 and yet when they are commanded fliey are laws ; and the external actions 
 done in obedience to them, vrithout the inward approl>ation, are the actions 
 of the sovereign, and not of the subject, which is in that case but as an 
 instrument, vnthoitt any motion of his own at all ; because God hath com- 
 manded to obey them. 
 
 The eleventh is every place where the apostle for counsel putteth some 
 word by which men use to signify command ; or calleth the following of his 
 counsel by the name of obedience. And therefore they are alleged out of 
 I Cor. xi. 2 : "I commend you for keeping my precepts as I delivered 
 them to you." The Greek is, " I commend you for keeping those things I 
 delivered to you as I delivered them." Which is far from signifying that 
 they were laws, or anything else, but good counsel. And that of i Thess. 
 iv. 2: " You know what commandments we gave you : " where the Greek 
 word is 5r»(Ja77eXias ihihKa.ii.tii, equivalent to irapeSuKa/uev, " what we 
 
2s6 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 delivered to you,'' as iu ihe place next before alleged, which does not prove 
 tiie traditions of the apostles to be any more than counsels ; though as is 
 said in the 8th verse, "he that despiseth them, despiseth not mail, but 
 God." For our Saviour himself came not to judge, that is, to be king in 
 this world, but to sacrifice himself for sinners, and leave doctors in His 
 Church to lead, not to drive men to Christ, vfho never accepteth forced 
 actions (which is all the law produceth), but the inward conversion of the 
 heart ; which is not the work of laws, but of counsel and doctrine. 
 
 And tharof 2 Thess. iii. 14, " If any man obey not our word by this 
 epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be 
 ashamed:" where from the word "obey," lie would infer that this epistle 
 was a law to the Thessalonians. The epistles of the emperors were indeed 
 laws. If therefore the epistle of St. Paul were also a law, they were to 
 obey two masters. But tlie word " obey," as it is in the Greek uxoKoiiei, 
 signifieth " hearkening to " or " putting in practice," not only that which 
 ij'commanded by him that has right to punish, but also that which is deli- 
 vered in a way of counsel for our good ; and therefore St. Paul does not 
 bid kill him that disobeys ; nor beat, nor imprison, nor amerce him, which 
 legislators may all do ; but avoid his company, that he may be ashamed : 
 whereby it is evident it was not the empire of an apostle, but his reputation 
 amongst the faithful, which the Christians stood in awe of. 
 
 The last place is that of Heb. xiii. 17, " Obey your leaders, and submit 
 yourselves to them ; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give 
 account : " and here also is intended by obedience a following of their 
 counsel. For the reason of our obedience is not drawn from the will and 
 command of our pastors, but from our own benefit, as being the salvation 
 of our souls they watcli for, and not for the exaltation of their own power 
 and authority. If it were meant here, that all they teach were laws, then 
 not only the Pope, but every pastor in his parish, should have legislative 
 power. Again, they that are bound to obey tbeu: pastors, have no power 
 to examine their commands. What then shall we say to St. John, who 
 bids us (l Epistle iv. l), "Not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits 
 whether they are of God ; because many false prophets are gone out into 
 the world ? " It is therefore manifest that we may dispute the doctrine of 
 our pastors ; but no man can dispute a law. The commands of civil sove 
 reigns are on all sides granted to be laws : if any else can make a law 
 besides himself, all commonwealth, and consequently all peace and justice 
 must cease ; which is contrary to all laws both divine and human. Nothing 
 therefore can be drawn from these, or any other places of Scripture, to prove 
 the decrees of the Pope, where he has not also the civil sovereignty, to be 
 laws. 
 
 The last point he would prove is this, " That our Saviour Christ has 
 committed ecclesiastical jurisdiction immediately to none hut the Pope." 
 Wherein he handleth not the question of supremacy between the Pope and 
 Christian kings, but between the Pope and other bishops. And first, he 
 says, it is agreed that the jurisdiction of bishops is at least in the general de 
 jure divino, that is, in the right of God ; for which he alleges St. Paul 
 (Eph. iv. 11), where he says that Christ, after His ascension into heaven, 
 " gave gifts to men, some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, 
 and some pastors, and some teachers ; " and thence infers they have indeed 
 their jurisdiction in God's right j but will not grant they have it immediately 
 from God, but derived through the Pope. But if a man may be said to 
 have his jurisdiction de jure divino, and yet not immediately ; what lawful 
 jurisdiction, though but civil, is there in a Christian commonwealth that is 
 not also dc jure divino ? For Christian kings have their civil power from 
 God immediately; and the magistrates under him exercise their several 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 257 
 
 charges in virtue of his commission; wherein that which they do is no less 
 dejure divino niediato, than that which the bishops do in virtue of the Pope's 
 ordination. All lawful power is of God, immediately in the supreme 
 governor, and mediately in those that have authority under him : so that 
 either he must grant every constable in the state to hold his office in the 
 right of God ; or he must not hold that any bishop holds his so, besides the 
 Pope himself. 
 
 But this whole dispute, whether Christ left the jurisdiction to the Pope 
 only, or to other bishops also, if considered out of those places where the 
 Pope has the civil sovereignty, is a contention de lana caprina : for none of 
 them, where they are not sovereigns, has any jurisdiction at all. For juris- 
 diction is the power of hearing and determining causes between man and 
 man : and can belong to none but him that hath the power to prescribe the 
 rules of right and wrong ; that is, to make laws ; and with the sword of 
 justice to compel men to obey his decisions, pronounced either by himself or 
 by the judges he ordaineth thereto ; which none can lawfully do but the 
 civil sovereign. 
 
 Therefore when he allegeth out of chapter vi. of Luke, that our Saviour 
 called His disciples together, and chose twelve of them, which He named 
 apostles, he proveth that He elected them (all, except Matthias, Paul, and 
 Barnabas), and gave them power and command to preach, but not to judge 
 of causes between man and man : for that is a power which He refused to 
 take upon himself, saying, " Who made me a judge, or a divider, amongst 
 you?" and in another place, "My kingdom is not of this world." But 
 he that hath not the power to hear and determine causes between man and 
 man, cannot be said to have any jurisdiction at all. And yet this hinders 
 not, but that our Saviour gave them power to preach and baptize in all 
 parts of the world, supposing they were not by their own lawful sovereign 
 forbidden : for to our own sovereigns Christ himself, and His apostles, 
 have in sundry places expressly commanded us in all things to be obedient. 
 
 The arguments by which he would prove that bishops receive their juris- 
 diction from the Pope (seeing the Pope in the dominions of other princes 
 hath no jurisdiction himself) are all in vain. Yet because they prove, on 
 the contrary, that all bishops receive jurisdiction, when they have it, from 
 their civil sovereigns, I will not omit the recital of them. 
 
 The first is from chapter xi. of Numbers, where Moses not being able 
 alone to undergo the whole burthen of administering the affairs of the people 
 of Israel, God commanded him to choose seventy elder.', and took part of 
 the spirit of Moses to put it upon those seventy elders : by which is under- 
 <'.>tood, not that God weakened the spirit of Moses ; for that had not eased 
 him at all ; but that they had all of them their authority from him , wherein 
 he doth truly and ingenuously interpret that place. But seeing Moses had 
 the entire sovereignty in the commonwealth of the Jews, it is manifest that 
 it is thereby signified that they had their authority from the civil sovereign : 
 and therefore that place proveth that bishops in every Christian common- 
 wealth have tlieir authority from the civil sovereign ; and from the Pope in 
 his own territories only, and not in the territories of any other state. 
 
 The second argument, is from the nature of monarchy ; wherein all 
 authority is in one man, and in others by derivation from him. But the 
 government of the Church, he says, is monarchical. This also makes for 
 Christian monarchs. For they are really monarchs of their own people ; 
 that is, of their own Church ; for the Church is the same thing with a 
 Christian people ; whereas the power of the Pope, though he were St. Peter, 
 is neither monarchy, nor hath anything of "archical," nor "cratical," but 
 only of "didactical;" for God accepteth not a forced, but a willing 
 pbedience. , ■ 
 
 I 
 
258 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 The third is from that the "see " of St. Peter is called by St. Cyprian, 
 the "head," the "source," the "root," the "sun," from whence the 
 authority of bishops is derived. But by the law of Nature, which is a 
 better principle of right and wrong than the word of aiiy doctor that i^ but 
 a man, the civil sovereign in every commonwealth is the "head, the 
 "source," the "root," and the "sun," from which all jurisdiction 13 de- 
 rived. And therefore the jurisdiction of bishops is derived from the civil 
 sovereign. 
 
 The fourth is taken from the inequality of their junsdictions. For if 
 God, saith he, had given it them immediately. He had given as well equality 
 of jurisdiction as of order ; but we see, some are bishops but of one town, 
 some of a hundred towns, and some of many whole provinces ; vifhich 
 differences were not determined by the command of God. Their jurisdic- 
 tion therefore is not of God, but of man ; and one has a greater, another a 
 less, as it pleaseththe Prince of the Church. Which argument, if lie had 
 proved before, that the Pope had an universal jurisdiction over all Christians, 
 had been for his purpose. But seeing that hath not been proved, and that 
 it is notoriously known, the large jurisdiction of the Pope was given him 
 by those that had it, that is, by the emperors of Rome (for the patriarch 
 of Constantinople, upon the same title, namely, of being bishop of the 
 capital city of the empire, and seat of the emperor, claimed to be equal to 
 him), it foUoweth, that all other bishops have their jurisdiction from the 
 sovereigns of the place wherein they exercise the same. And as for that 
 cause they have not their authority de jure divino ; so neither hath the Pope 
 his de jure divino, except only where he is also the civil sovereign. 
 
 His fifth argument is this: " If bishops have their jurisdiction imme- 
 diately from God, the Pope could not take it from them, for he can do 
 nothing contrary to God's ordination," and this consequence is good, and 
 well proved. " But," saith he, " the Pope can do this, and has done it." 
 This-also is granted, so he do it in his own dominions, or in the dominions 
 of any other prince that hath given him that power ; but not universally in 
 right of the popedom, for that power belongeth to every Christian sove- 
 reign within the bounds of his own empire, and is inseparable from the 
 sovereignty. Before the people of Israel had, by the commandment of God 
 to Samuel, set over themselves a king, after the manner of other nations, 
 the high priest had the civil government, and none but he could make or 
 depose an inferior priest. But that power was afterwards in the king, as 
 may be proved by this same argument of Bellarmine ; for if the priest be 
 the high priest, or any other had his jurisdiction immediately from God, 
 then the king could not take it from him, "for he could do nothing con- 
 trary to God's ordinance." But it is certain that king Solomon (i Kings 
 ii. 26, 27) deprived Abiathar the high priest of his office, and placed Zadok 
 (verse 35) in his room. Kings therefore may in like manner ordain and 
 deprive bishops, as they shall think fit for the well-governing of their 
 subjects. 
 
 His sixth argument is this : if bishops have their jurisdiction de jure 
 divino, that is, "immediately from God," they that maintain it should bring 
 some word of God to prove it ; but they can bring none. The argument 
 is good ; I have therefore nothing to say against it. But it is an argument 
 no less good to prove the Pope himself to have no jurisdiction in the 
 dominipn of any other prince. 
 
 Lastly, he bringeth for argument the testimony of two popes. Innocent 
 and Leo ; and I doubt not he might have alleged with as good reason, the 
 testimonies of all the popes almost since St. Peter. For considering the 
 love of power naturally implanted in mankind, whosoever were made Pope 
 he would be tempted to nphold the same opinion. Nevertheless, they 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 259 
 
 should therein but do, as Innocent and Leo did, bear witness of tliemselve?, 
 and therefore their witness should not be good. 
 
 In the fifth book he hath four conclusions. The first is, "that the Pope 
 is not lord of all the world ; " the second, " that the Pope is not the lord of 
 all tlie Christian world ; " the third, " that the Pope without his own 
 territory, has not any temporal jurisdiction ' directly.' " These three con- 
 clusions are easily granted. The fourth is, "that the Pope has, in the 
 dominions of other princes, the supreme temporal power ' indirectly,' " 
 which is denied ; unless he mean by "indirectly," that he has gotten it by 
 indirect means, then is that also granted. But I understand that when he 
 saith he liath it "indirectly," he means that such temporal jurisdiction 
 belongeth to him of right, but that this right is but a consequence of his 
 pastoral authority, the which he could not exercise unless he have the other 
 with it ; and therefore to the pastoral power, which he calls spiritual, the 
 supreme power civil is necessarily annexed ; and that thereby he hath a 
 right to change kingdoms, giving them to one and taking them from 
 another, when he shall think it conduces to the salvation of souls. 
 
 Before I come to consider the arguments by which he would prove this 
 doctrine, it will not be amiss to lay open the consequences of it ; that 
 princes and states that have the civil sovereignty in their several common- 
 wealths may bethink themselves, whether it be convenient for them, and 
 conducing to the good of their subjects, of whom they are to give an ac- 
 count at the day of judgment, to admit the same. 
 
 When it is said the Pope hath not, in the territories of other states, the 
 supreme civil power "directly," we are to understand he doth not challenge 
 it, as other civil sovereigns do, from the original submission thereto of those 
 that are to be governed. For it is evident, and has already been sufficiently 
 in this treatise demonstrated, that the right of all sovereigns is derived 
 originally from the consent of every one of those that are to be governed ; 
 whether they that choose him do it for their common defence against an 
 enemy, as when they agree amongst themselves to appoint a man or an 
 assembly of men to protect them ; or whether they do it to save their lives, 
 by submission to a conquering enemy. The Pope therefore when he dis- 
 daimeth the supreme civil power over other states " directly," denieth no 
 more, but that his right cometh to him by that way ; he ceaseth not for 
 all that to claim it another way, and that is, without the consent of them 
 that are to be governed, by a right given him by God, which he calleth 
 "indirectly" in his assumption to the papacy. But by what way soever 
 he pretend, the power is the same ; and he may, if it be granted to be his 
 light, depose princes and states as often as it is for the salvation of soUls, 
 that is, as often as he will : for he claimeth also the sole power to judge 
 whether it be to the salvation of men's souls or not. And this is the 
 doctrine not only that Bellarmine here, and many other doctors teach in 
 their sermons and books, but also that some councils have decreed, and the 
 Popes have accordingly, when the occasion hath served them, put in practice. 
 For the fourtli council of Lateran, held under Pope Innocent the Third, in 
 the third chapter De Hcereticis, hath this canon: " If a king, at the Pope's 
 admonition, do not purge his kingdom of heretics, and being excommuni- 
 cate for the same, make not satisfaction within a year, his subjects are 
 absolved of their obedience." And the practice hereof hath been seen on 
 divers occasions ; as in the deposing of Chilperic, king of France ; in the 
 translation of the Roman empire to Charlemagne; in the oppression of 
 Tohn, king of England ; in transferring the kingdom of Navarre ; and of 
 ate years, in the league against Henry the Third of France, and in many 
 more occurrences. I think there be few princes that consider not this as. 
 unjust and inconvenient ; but I wish they would all resolve to be kings or 
 
 13 
 
 I 
 
26o OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 subjects. Men cannot serve two masters. They ought therefore to ease 
 them, either by holding the reins of government wholly in their own 
 hands ; or by wholly delivering them into the hands of the Pope ; that such 
 men as are willing to be obedient, may be protected in their obedience. 
 For this distinction of temporal and spiritual power is but words. Power 
 is as really divided and as dangerously to all purposes, by sharing with 
 another "indirect" power, as with a "direct" one. But to come now to 
 his arguments. 
 
 The first is this, "The civil power is subject to the spiritual: therefore 
 he that hath the supreme power spiritual, hath right to command temporal 
 princes, and dispose of their temporals in order to the spiritual." As for 
 the distinction of temporal and spiritual, let us consider in what sense it 
 may be said intelligibly, that the temporal or civil power is subject to the 
 spiritual. There be but two ways that those words can be made sense. 
 For when we say, one power is subject to another power, the meaning 
 either is, that he which hath the one, is subject to him that hath the other ; 
 or that the one power is to the other, as the means to the end. For we 
 cannot understand that one power hath power over another power ; or that 
 one power can have right or command over another. For subjection, com- 
 mand, right, and power, are accidents, not of powers, but of persons. One 
 power may be subordinate to another, as the art of a saddler to the art of a 
 rider. If then it be granted, that the civil government be ordained as a 
 means to bring us to a spiritual felicity ; yet it does not follow, that if a 
 king have the civil power, and the Pope the spiritual, tliat therefore the 
 king is bound to obey the Pope, more than every saddler is bound to obey 
 every rider. Therefore as from subordination of an art, cannot be inferred 
 the subjection of the professor ; so from the subordination of a govern- 
 ment cannot be inferred the subjection of the governor. When there- 
 fore he saith, the civil power is subject to the spiritual, his meaning is, 
 that the civil sovereign is subject to the spiritual sovereign. And the argu- 
 ment stands thus, " The civil sovereign is subject to the spiritual ; therefore 
 the spiritual prince may command temporal princes. " Where the conclusion 
 is the same with the antecedent he should have proved. But to prove it, 
 he allegeth first, this reason : " Kings and Popes, clergy and laity, make 
 but one commonwealth ; that is to say, but one Church : and in all bodies 
 the members depend one upon another : but things spiritual depend not on 
 things temporal : therefore temporal depend on spiritual, and therefore are 
 subject to them." In which argumentation there be two gross errors : one 
 is, that all Christian kings, popes, clergy, and all other' Christian men, 
 make but one commonwealth. For it is evident that France is one coni- 
 moiiwealth, Spain another, and Venice a third, &c. And these consist of 
 Christians ; and therefore also are several bodies of Christians ; that is to 
 say, several Churches : and their several sovereigns represent them, whereby 
 they are capable of commanding and obeying, of doing and suffering, as a 
 natural man ; which no general or universal Church is, till it have a repre- 
 sentant ; which it hath not on earth : for if it had, there is no doubt but 
 that all Christendom were one commonwealth, whose sovereign were that 
 representant, both in things spiritual and temporal. And the Pope, to 
 make himself this representant, wauteth three things that our Saviour hath 
 not given him, to "command," and to "judge," and to "punish," other- 
 wise than, by excommunication, to run from those that will not learn of 
 him. For though the Pope were Christ's only vicar, yet he cannot exercise 
 his government, till our Saviour's second coming : and then also it is not 
 the Pope, but St. Peter himself with the other apostles, that are to be jud<'es 
 of the world. ° 
 
 The other error in this his first argument is, that he says, the members of 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL. 261 
 
 every commonwealth, as of a natural body, depend one of another. It is 
 trae, they cohere together, but they depend only on the sovereign, which is 
 the soul of the commonwealth ; which failing, the commonwealth is dis- 
 solved into a civil war, no one man so much as cohering to another for want 
 of a common dependence on a known sovereign ; just as the members of 
 the natural body dissolve into earth for want of a soul to hold them 
 together. Therefore there is nothing in this similitude from whence-to infer 
 a dependence of the laity on the clergy, or of the temporal officers on the 
 spiritual ; but of both on the civil sovereign ; which ought indeed to direct 
 his civil commands to the salvation of souls ; but is not therefore subject to 
 any but God himself. And thus you see the laboured fallacy of the first 
 argument to deceive such men as distinguish not between the subordination 
 of actions in the way to the end ; and the subjection of persons one to 
 another in the administration of the means. For to every end the means 
 are determined by Nature, or by God himself supernaturally ; but the power 
 to make men use the means is in every nation resigned by the law of Nature, 
 which forbiddeth men to violate their faith given to the civil sovereign. 
 
 His second argument is this : " Every commonwealth, because it is sup- 
 posed to be perfect and sufficient in itself, may command any other 
 commonwealth not subject to it, and force it to change the administration 
 of the government ; nay, depose the prince, and set another in his room, if 
 it cannot otherwise defend itself against the injuries he goes about to 
 do them : much more may a spiritual commonwealth command a temporal 
 one to change the administraiion of their government, and may depose 
 princes, and institute others, when they cannot otherwise defend the 
 spiritual good." 
 
 That a commonwealth, to defend itself against injuries, may lawfully do 
 all that he hath here said, is very true ; and hath already in that which hath 
 gone before been sufficiently demonstrated. And if it were also true, that 
 there is now in this world a spiritual commonwealth, distinct from a civil 
 commonwealth, then might the prince thereof, upon injury done him, or 
 upon want of caution that injury be not done him in time to come, repair 
 and secure himself by war ; which is, in sum, deposing, killing, or subduing, 
 or doing any act of hostility. But by the same reason, it would be no less 
 lawful for a civil sovereign, upon the like injuries done, or feared, to make 
 war upon the spiritual sovereign ; which I believe is more than Cardinal 
 Uellarmine would have inferred from his own proposition. 
 
 But spiritual commonwealth there is none in this world : for it is the same 
 thing with the kingdom of Christ, which He himself saith is not of this 
 world ; but shall be in the next world at the resurrection, when they that 
 have lived justly, and believed that He was the Christ shall, though they 
 died " natural " bodies, rise ' ' spiritual " bodies : and then it is that our 
 ■Saviour shall judge the world, and conquer His adversaries, and make a 
 spiritual commonwealth. In the meantime, seeing there are no men on 
 earth whose bodies are spiritual, there can be no spiritual commonwealth 
 amongst men that are yet in the flesh ; unless we call preachers, that have 
 commission to teach, and prepare men for their reception into the kingdom 
 of Christ at the resurrection, a commonwealth ; which I have proved 
 already to be none. 
 
 The third argument is this: " It is not lawful for Christians to tolerate 
 an infidel or heretical king, in case he endeavour to draw them to his heresy 
 or infidelity. But to judge whether a king draw his subjects to heresy or not 
 belongeth to the Pope. Therefore hath the Pope right to determine whether 
 the prince be to be deposed or not deposed." 
 
 To this I answer, that both these assertions are false. For Christians, or 
 men of what religion soever, if they tolerate not their king, whatsoever law 
 
262 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 he makctli, though it be concerning religion, do violate their faith, contrary 
 to the divine lavi^, both " natural " and " positive : " nor is there any judge 
 of heresy amongst subjects, but their own civil sovereign. For " heresy 
 is nothing else but a private opinion obstinately maintained, contrary to the 
 opinion which the public person, that is to say, the representant of the com- 
 monwealth, hath commanded to be taught." By which it is manifest, that 
 an opinion publicly appointed to be taught, cannot be heresy ; nor the 
 sovereign princes that authorize them, heretics. For heretics are none but 
 private men, that stubbornly defend some doctrine prohibited by their lawful 
 sovereigns. 
 
 But to prove that Christians are not to tolerate infidel or heretical kings, 
 he allegeth a place in Deut. xvii. 15, where God forbiddeth the Jews, when 
 they shall set a king over themselves, to choose a stranger : and from 
 thence inferreth that it is unlawful f<Jr a Chrislian to choose a king that is 
 not a Christian. And it is true, that he that is a Christian, that is, he 
 that hath already obliged himself to receive our Saviour, when He shall 
 come, for his king, shall tempt God too much in choosing for king in this 
 world one that he knoweth will endeavour, both by terror and persuasion, 
 to make him violate his faith. But it is, saith he, the same danger to 
 choose one that is not a Christian for king, and not to depose him when he 
 is chosen. To this I say, the question is not of the danger of not deposing, 
 but of the justice of deposing him. To choose him, may in some cases be 
 unjust ; but to depose him when he is chosen is in no case just. For it is 
 always violation of faith, and consequently against the law of Nature, which 
 is the eternal law of God. Nor do we read that any such doctrine was 
 accounted Christian in the time of the apostles ; nor in the time of the Roman 
 emperors, till the Popes had the civil sovereignty of Rome. But to this 
 he hath replied, that the Christians of old deposed not Nero, nor Diocletian, 
 nor Julian, nor Valens an Arian, for this cause only, that they wanted tem- 
 poral forces. Perhaps so. But did our Saviour, who for calling for might 
 have had twelve legions of immortal, invulnerable angels to assist Him, 
 want forces to depose Csesar, or at least Pilate, that unjustly, without 
 finding fault in Him, delivered Him to the Jews to be crucified ? Or if the 
 apostles wanted temporal forces to depose Nero, was it therefore necessary 
 for them, in their epistles to the new-made Christians, to teach them, as 
 they did, to obey the powers constituted over them, whereof Nero in that 
 time was one, and that they ought to obey them, not for fear of their wrath, 
 but for conscience sake ? Shall we say they did not only obey, but also teach 
 what they meant not, for want of strength ? It is not therefore for want of 
 strength, but for conscience sake, that Christians are to tolerate their hea- 
 then princes, or princes (for I cannot call any one whose doctrine is the 
 public doctrine an heretic) that authorize the teaching of an error. And 
 whereas for the temporal power of the Pope, he allegeth further, that 
 St. Paul (l Cor. vi.) appointed judges under the heathen princes of those 
 times, such as were not ordained by those princes ; it is not true. For 
 St. Paul does but advise them to take some of their brethren to compound 
 their differences as arbitrators, rather than to go to law one with another 
 before the heathen judges ; which is a wholesome precept, and full of charity, 
 fit to be practised also in the best Christian commonwealths. And for the 
 danger that may arise to religion, by the subjects tolerating of a heathen, 
 or an erring prince, it is a point of which a subject is no competent judge j 
 or if he be, the Pope's temporal subjects may judge also of the Pope's doc- 
 trine- ^^. For every Christian prince, as I have formerly proved, is no less 
 supreme pastor of his own subjects than the Pope of his. 
 
 The fourth argument is tak^n from the baptism of kings ; wherein that 
 they may be made Christians, they submit their sceptres to Christ ; and 
 
OF POWER ECCLESIASTICAL 263 
 
 promise to keep and defend the Christian faith. This is true ; for 
 Christian kings are no more but Christ's subjects : but they may, for all that, 
 be the Pope's fellows ; for they are supreme pastors of their own subjects ; 
 and the I'ope is no more but king and pastor, even in Rome itself. 
 
 The fifth argument is drawn from the words spoken by our Saviour, 
 " Feed my sheep ;" by which was given all power necessary for a pastor ; 
 as the power to chase away wolves, such as are heretics ; the power to shut 
 up rams if they be mad, or push at the other sheep with their horns, such 
 as are evil, though Christian kings ; and power to give the flock convenient 
 food. From whence he inferreth that St. Peter had these three powers 
 given him by Christ. To which I answer, that the last of these powers is no 
 more than the power, or rather command, to teach. For the first, which is 
 to chase away wolves, that is, heretics, the place hequoteth is (Matt. vii. 15), 
 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but 
 inwardly are ravening wolves." But neither are heretics false prophets, or 
 at all prophets : nor, admitting heretics for the wolves there meant, were 
 the apostles commanded to kill them, or- if they were kings, to depose 
 them ; but to beware of, fly, and avoid them : nor was it to St. Peter, nor 
 to any of the apostles, but to the multitude of the Jews that followed him 
 into the mountain, men for the mostv part not yet converted, that he gave 
 this counsel, to beware of false prophets: which, therefore, if it confer a 
 power of chasing away kings, was given, not only to private men, but to 
 men that were not at all Christians. And as to the power of separating, 
 and shutting up of furious rams, by which he meaneth Christian kings that 
 refuse to submit themselves to the Roman pastor, our Saviour refused to 
 takj upon Him that power in this world himself, but advised to let the 
 corn and tares grow up together till the day of judgment : much less did 
 He give it to St. Peter, or can St. Peter give it to the Popes. St. Peter 
 and all other pastors are bidden to esteem those Christians that disobey the 
 Church, that is, that disobey the Christian sovereign, as heathen men, and 
 as publicans. Seeing then, men challenge to the Pope no authority over 
 heathen princes, they ought to challenge none over those that are to be 
 esteemed as heathen. 
 
 But from the power to teach only, he inferreth also a coercive power in 
 the Pope, over kings. The pastor, saith he, must give his flock convenient 
 food : therefore the Pope may, and ought to compel kings to do their duty. 
 Out of which it followeth that the Pope as pastor of Christian men, is king 
 of kings : which all Christian kings ought indeed either to confess, or else 
 they ought to take upon themselves the supreme pastoral charge, every 
 one in his own dominion. 
 
 His sixth and last argument is from examples. To which I answer, 
 first, that examples prove nothing : secondly, that the examples he allegeth 
 make not so much as a probability of right. The fact of Jehoiada, in killing 
 Athaliah {2 Kings xi.), was either by the authority of king Joash, or it was 
 a horrible crime in the high priest, which ever after the election of king 
 Saul was a mere subject. The fact of St. Ambrose in excommunicating 
 Theodosius the emperor, if it were true he did so, was a capital crime. 
 And for the Popes, Gregory I., Gregory II., Zachary, and Leo III., their 
 judgments are void, as given in their own cause ; and the acts done by 
 them conformably to this doctrine, are the greatest crimes, especially that 
 of Zachary, that are incident to human nature. And thus much of Power 
 Ecclesiastical ; wherein I had been more brief, forbearing to examine these 
 arguments of Bellarmine, if they had been his as a private man, and not as 
 the champion of the Papacy against all other Christian Princes and States. 
 
264 OP A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 Of what is necessary for a Man's Reception into the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 The most frequent pretext of sedition, and civil war, in Christian common- 
 wealths, hath a long time proceeded from a difficulty, not yet sufficiently 
 resolved, of obeying at once both God and man, then when their com- 
 mandments are one contrary to the other. It is manifest enough, that 
 when a man receiveth two contrary commands, and knows that one of them 
 is God's, he ought to obey that, and not the other, though it be the com- 
 mand even of his lawful sovereign (whether a monarch, or a sovereign 
 assembly), or the command of his father. The difficulty tlierefore con- 
 sisteth in this, that men, when they are commanded in the name of God, 
 know not in divers cases, whether the command be from God, or whether 
 he that commandeth do but abuse God's name for some private ends of his 
 own. For as there were in the Church of the Jews, many false prophets, 
 that sought reputation with the people, by feigned dreams and visions ; so 
 there have been in all times in the Church of Clirist, false teachers, that 
 seek reputation with the people, by fantastical and false doctrines ; and by 
 such reputation (as is the nature of ambition), to govern them for their 
 private benefit. 
 
 But this difficulty of obeying both God and the civil sovereign on earth, 
 to those that can distinguish between what is " necessary," and what is not 
 " necessary for their reception into the kingdom of God," is of no moment. 
 For if the command of the civil sovereign be such, as that it may be obeyed 
 without the forfeiture of life eternal ; not to obey it is unjust ; and the 
 precept of the apostle takes place : " Servants obey your masters in all 
 things ; " and " Children obey your parents in all things ; " and the precept 
 of our Saviour, " The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' chair ; all there- 
 fore they shall say, that observe and do. " But if the command be such as 
 cannot be obeyed, without being damned to eternal death ; then it were 
 madness to obey it, and the counsel of our Saviour takes place (Matt. x. 
 28), " Fear not those that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul." All 
 men therefore that would avoid, both the punishments that are to be in this 
 world inflicted, for disobedience to their earthly sovereign, and those that 
 shall be inflicted in the world to come, for disobedience to God, have need 
 be taught to distinguish well between what is, and what is not necessary to 
 eternal salvation. 
 
 All that is " necessary to salvation," is contained in two virtues, "faith 
 in Christ," and " obedience to laws." The latterof these, if it were perfect, 
 were enough to us. But because we are all guilty of disobedience to God's 
 law, not only originally in Adam, but also actually by our own trans- 
 gressions, there is required at our hands now, not only " obedience " for 
 the rest of our time, but also a " remission of sins " for the time past ; 
 which remission is the reward of our faith in Christ. That nothing else is 
 necessarily required to salvation, is manifest from this, that the kingdom of 
 heaven is shut to none but to sinners ; that is to say, to the disobedient, or 
 transgressors of the law ; nor to them, in case they repent, and believe all 
 the articles of Chiistian faith necessary to salvation. 
 
 The obedience required at our hands by God, that accepteth in all our 
 actions the will for the deed, is a serious endeavour to obey Him ; and is 
 called also by all such names as signify that endeavour. And therefore 
 obedience is sometimes called by the names of "charity" and "love," 
 because they imply a will to obey ; and our Saviour himself maketh out 
 
WHA T NECESSAR Y TO SAL VA TION. 265 
 
 love to God, and to one another, a fulfilling of the whole law : and some- 
 times by ihc name of " righteousness ; " for righteousness is but the will to 
 give to every one his own ; that is to say, the will to obey the laws ; and 
 sometimes by the name of " repentance ;" because to repent implieth a 
 tinning away from sin, which is the same with the return of the will to 
 obedience. Whosoever therefore unfeignedly desireth to fulfil the com- 
 mandments of God, or repenteth him truly of his transgressions, or that 
 loveth God with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself, hath all the 
 obedience necessary to his reception into the kingdom of God, For if God 
 should require perfect innocence, there could no flesh be saved. 
 
 But what commandments are those that God hath given us ? Are all those 
 laws which were given to the Jews by the hand of Moses the commandments 
 of God? If they be, why are not Christians taught to obey them? If they be 
 not, what others are so, besides the law of Nature ? For our Saviour Christ 
 hath not given us new laws, but counsel to observe those we are subject to ; 
 that is to say, the laws of Nature and the laws of our several sovereigns : 
 nor did He make any new law to the Jews in His sermon on the Mount, but 
 only expounded the law of Moses, to which they were subject before. The 
 laws of God therefore are none but the laws of Nature, whereof the principal 
 is, that we should not violate our faith, that is, a commandment to obey 
 our civil sovereigns, which we constituted over us by mutual pact one with 
 another. And this law of God, that commandeth obedience to the law civil, 
 commandeth by consequence obedience to all the precepts of the Bible ; 
 which, as I have proved in the precedent chapter, is there only law, where 
 the civils overeign hath made it so ; and in other places, but counsel ; which 
 a man at his own peril may without injustice refuse to obey. 
 
 Knowing now what is the obedience necessary to salvation, and to whom 
 it is due ; we are to consider next concerning faith, whom, and why we 
 believe ; and what are the articles or points necessary to be believed by 
 them that shall be saved. And first, for the person whom we believe, 
 because it is impossible to believe any person before we know what he saith, 
 it is necessary he be one that we have heard speak. The person, therefore, 
 whom Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets, believed, was God 
 himself that spake unto them supematurally : and the person whom the 
 apostles and disciples that conversed with Christ believed, was our Saviour 
 himself. But of them, to whom neither God the Father, nor our .Saviour, 
 ever spake, it cannot be said that the person whom they believed was 
 God. They believed the apostles, and after them the pastors ani doctors 
 of the Church, that recommended to their faith the history of the Old and 
 New Testament : so that the faith of Christians ever since our Saviour's 
 time hath had for foundation, first, the reputation of their pastors, and 
 afterward the authority of those that made the Old and New Testament 
 to be received for the rule of faith ; which none could do but Christian 
 sovereigns ; who are therefore the supreme pastors, and the only persons 
 whom Christians now hear speak from God ; except such as God speaketh 
 to in these days supematurally. But because there be many false prophets 
 "gone out into the world," othei men are to examine such spirits, as St. 
 John adviseth us (ist Epistle iv. l), "whether they be of God or not." 
 And therefore, seeing the examination of doctrines belongeth to the su- 
 preme pastor, the person, which all they that have no special revelation are 
 to believe, is, in every commonwealth, the supreme pastor, that is to say, 
 the civil sovereign. 
 
 The causes why men believe any Christian doctrine are various. For 
 faithis the gift oi God ; and He worketh It in each several map by such 
 ways as it seemeth good unto himself. The most ordinary immediate 
 cause of our belief, concerning any point of Christian faith, is, that we 
 
266 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 believe the Bible to be the word of God. But why we believe the Bible to 
 be the word of God is much disputed, as all questions must needs be, that 
 are not well stated. For they make not the question to be, "why we be- 
 lieve it," but, "how we know it;" as if " believing" and "knowing" were 
 all one. And thence while one side ground their knowledge upon the in- 
 fallibility of the Church, and the other side, on the testimony of the private 
 spirit, neither side concludeth what it pretends. For how shall a man 
 know the infallibility of the Church, but by knowing first the infallibility 
 or the Scripture ? Or how shall a man know his own private spirit to be 
 other than a belief, grounded upon the authority and arguments of his 
 teachers, or upon a presumption of his own gifts ? Besides, there is nothing 
 in the Scripture from which can be inferred the infallibility of the Church ; 
 much less of any particular Church ; and least of all, the infallibility of any 
 particular man. 
 
 It is manifest therefore that Christian men do not know, but only believe 
 the Scripture to be the word of God ; and that the means of making them 
 believe, which God is pleased to afford men ordinarily, is according to the 
 way of Nature, that is to say, from their teachers. It is the doctrine of St. 
 Paul concerning Christian faith in general (Rom. x. 17), "faith cometh by 
 hearing," that is, by hearing our lawful pastors. He saith also (verses 14, 
 15, of the same chapter), " How shall they believe in Him of whom they 
 have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall 
 they preach, except they be sent ? " Whereby it is evident that the ordinary 
 cause of believing that the Scriptures are the word of God, is the same with 
 the cause of the believing of all other articles of our faith, namely, the 
 ' hearing of those that are by the law allowed and appointed to teach us, as 
 our parents in their houses, and our pastors in the churches. Which also is 
 made more manifest by experience. For what other cause can there be 
 assigned why, in Christian commonwealths, all men either believe, or at 
 least profess the Scripture to be the word of God, and in other common- 
 wealths scarce any ; but that in Christian commonwealths they are taught 
 it from their infancy ; and in other places they are taught otherwise? 
 
 But if teaching be the cause of faith, why do not all believe ? It is certain 
 therefore that faith is the gift of God, and Hegiveth it to whom He will. 
 Nevertheless, because to them to whom He giveth it, He giveth it by the 
 means of teachers, the immediate cause of faith is hearmg. In a school, 
 where many are taught, and some profit, others profit not, the cause of 
 learning ni them that profit is the master ; yet it cannot be thence inferred that 
 learning is not the gift of God. All good things proceed from God ; yet 
 cannot all that have them say they are inspired ; for that implies a gift super- 
 natural, and the immediate hand of God, which he that pretends to, pre- 
 tends to be a prophet, and is subject to the examination of the Church. 
 
 But whether men "know," or " believe," or "grant " the Scriptures to 
 be the word of God ; if out of such places of them as are without obscurity 
 I shall show what articles of faith are necessary, and only necessary for 
 salvation, those men must needs " know," " believe," or " grant " the same. 
 
 The umim necessarium, only article of faith, which the Scripture maketh 
 simply necessary to salvation, is this, that "Jesus is the Christ." By the 
 name of " Christ " is understood the king, which God had befoie promised 
 by the prophets of the Old Testament to send into the world, to leign (over 
 the Jews, and over such of other nations as should believe in Him), under 
 himself eternally ; and to give them that eternal hfe which was lost by the 
 sin of Adam. Which when I have proved out of Scripture, I will furthei 
 show when and in wliat sense some other articles m.iy be also called 
 " necessary.'' 
 
 For proof that the belief of this article, "Jesus is the Christ," is all the 
 
WHAT XECESSARY TO SALVATION. 267 
 
 faith required to salvation, my first aigument shall be from the scope of the 
 Evangelists, which was by the description of the life of our Saviour, to 
 establish that one article, "Jesus is the Christ." The sum of St. Matthew's 
 Gospel is this, that Jesus was of the stock of David, bom of a Virgin : 
 which are the marks of the tme Christ : that the Magi came to worship 
 Him as Kmg of the Jews : that Herod for tlie same cause sought to kill 
 Him : that John the Baptist proclaimed Him ': that He preached by him- 
 self and His apostles that He was that king : that He taught the law, not 
 as a Scribe, but as a man of authority : that He cured diseases by His word 
 only, and did many other miracles, which were foretold the Christ should 
 do : that He was saluted king when He entered into Jerusalem : that He 
 forewarned them to beware of all others that should pretend to be Christ : 
 that He was taken, accused, and put to death, for saying He was king ; 
 that the cause of His condemnation written on the cross was, JESUS OF 
 NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. All which tend to no 
 other end than this, that men should believe that " Jesus is the Christ. " 
 Such therefore was the scope of St. Matthew's Gospel. But the scope of 
 all the Evangelists, as may appear by reading them, was the same. There- 
 fore the scope of the whole gospel was the establishing of that only arlicle. 
 And St. John expressly makes it his conclusion (John xx. 31), "These 
 things are written, that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
 the living God." 
 
 My second argument is taken from the subjects of the sermons of the 
 apostles, both whilst our Saviour lived on earth, and after His ascension. 
 The apostles, in our Saviour's time, were sent (Luke ix. 2) " to preach the 
 kingdom of God." For neither there nor Matt. x. ygiveth He any com- 
 mission to them other than this, " As ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom 
 of heaven is at hand ; " that is, that Jesus is the " Messiah," the " Christ," 
 the " King " which was to come. That their preaching also after His 
 ascension was the same, is manifest out of Acts xvii. 6, 7, "They drew," 
 saith St. Luke, "Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, 
 •^■Tingi These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, 
 whom Jason hath received ; and these all do contrary to the decrees of 
 Coesar, saying, that there is another King, one Jesus." And out of the 
 second and third verses of the same chapter, where it is said that St. Paul, 
 "as his manner was, went in unto them ; and three Sabbath days reasoned 
 with them out of the Scriptures ; opening and alleging that Christ must 
 needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, 
 whom he preached, is Christ." 
 
 The third argument is from those places of Scripture, by which all the 
 faith required to salvation is declared to be easy. For if an inward assent 
 of the mind to all the doctrines concerning Christian faith n6w taught, 
 whereof tlie greatest part are disputed, were necessary to salvation, there 
 would be nothing in the world so hard as to be a Christian. The thief upofi 
 the cross, though repenting, could not have been saved for saying, "Lord 
 remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom ; " by which he testified 
 no belief of any other article but this, that "Jesus was the king." Nor 
 could it be said (as it is, Matt. xi. 30), that "Christ's yoke is easy, and His 
 burthen light ; " nor that "little children believe in Him," as it is Matt, 
 xviii, 6. Nor could St. Paul have said (i Cor. i. 21), "It pleased God by 
 the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." Nor could St. 
 Paul himself have been saved, much less have been so great a doctor of the 
 Church so suddenly, that never perhaps thought of transubstantiation not 
 purgatory, nor many other articles now obtruded. 
 
 Tlie fourth argument is taken from places express, and such as receive no 
 controversy of interpretation ; as first, John v. 39 : " Search the Scriptures, 
 
268 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 for in theij ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they that testify of 
 me." Our Saviour here speaketh of the Scriptures only of the Old 
 Testament; for the Jews at that time could not search the Scriptures of the 
 New Testament, which were not written. But the Old Testament hath 
 nothing of Christ but the marks by which men might know Him when He 
 came ; as that He should descend from David, be born at Bethlehem, and 
 of a Virgin ; do great miracles, and the like. Therefore to believe that this 
 Jesus was He, was sufficient to eternal life ; but more than sufficient is not 
 necessary, and consequently no other article is required. Again (John xi. 26), 
 " Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall not die eternally." Therefore 
 to believe in Christ is faith sufficient to eternal life ; and consequently no 
 more faith than that is necessary. But to believe in Jesus, and to believe 
 that Jesus is the Christ, is all one, as appeareth in the verses immediately 
 following. For when our Saviour (verse 26) had said to Martha, "Believest 
 thou this? " she answereth (verse 27), " Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world." Therefore 
 this article alone is faith sufficient to life eternal : and more than sufficient is 
 not necessary. Thirdly (John xx. 31) : "These things are written that ye 
 might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing 
 ye might have life through His name." There, to believe that "Jesus is 
 the Christ," is faith sufficient to the obtaining of life ; and therefore no other 
 article is necessary. Fourthly I (John iv. 2), "Every spirit that confesseth 
 that Jesus Christ is come in the Resh, is of God." And i John v. I : 
 "Whosoever believeth that Jesiis is the Christ, is born of God." And 
 verse 5, " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that 
 Jesus is the Son of God?'' Fifthly (Acts viii. 36, 37), "See," saith the 
 eunuch, "here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip 
 said. If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayst. And he answered and 
 said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Therefore this article 
 believed "Jesus is the Christ," is sufficient to baptism, that is to say, to our 
 reception into the kingdom of God, and by consequence, only necessary. 
 And generally in all places where our Saviour saith to any man, " Thy faith 
 hath saved thee, " the cause He saith it, is some confession, which directly, or 
 by consequence, implieth a belief that "Jesus is the Christ." 
 
 The last argument is from the places where this article is made the 
 foundation of faith ; for he that holdeth the foundation shall be saved. 
 Which places are first, Matt. xxiv. 23, 24 : " If any man shall say unto you, 
 Lo here is Christ, or there, believe it not ; for there shall arise false Christs 
 and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders," &c. Here we 
 see this article, "Jesus is the Christ," must be held, though he that shall 
 teach the_ contrary should do great miracles. The second place is, Gal. i. 8: 
 " Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, 
 than that we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." But the gospel 
 which Paul and the other apostles preached, was only this article, that 
 "Jesus is the Christ;" therefore for the belief of this article, we are 
 to reject the authority of an angel from heaven ; much more of any mortal 
 man, if he teach the contrary. This is therefore the fundamental article of 
 Christian faith. A third place is (i John iv. I, 2), " Beloved, believe not 
 every spirit ; hereby ye shall know the Spirit of God ; every spirit that con- 
 fesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." By which it is 
 evident that this article is the measure and rule by which to estimate and 
 examine all other articles ; and is therefore only fundamental. A fourth is, 
 Matt. xvi. 16, 18, where after St. Peter had professed this article, saying to 
 our Saviour, " Thou art Christ the Son ot the living God," our Saviour 
 answered, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church;* 
 
WHA T NECESSAR Y TO SALVA TION. 269 
 
 from whence I infer that this article is that on which all other doctrines of the 
 Church are built, as on their foundation. A fifth is (I Cor. iii. II, 12, &c.), 
 "Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, Jesus is the 
 Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious 
 stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be made manifest ; for 
 the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall 
 tiy every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which 
 he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall 
 be burnt, he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by 
 fire." Which words, being partly plain and easy to understand, and partly 
 allegorical and difficult ; out of that which is plain may be inferred, that 
 pastors that teach this foundation, that "Jesus is the Christ," though they 
 draw from it false consequences, which all men are sometimes subject to, 
 they may nevertheless be saved ; much more that they may be saved, who 
 being no pastors, but hearers, believe that which is by their lawful pastors 
 taught them. Therefore the belief of this article is sufficient ; and by 
 consequence, there is no other article of faith necessarily required to 
 salvation. 
 
 Now for the part which is allegorical, as "that the fire shall try every 
 man's work," and that " they shall be saved, but so as by fire," or "through 
 fire " (for the original is 8i4 wpbi), it maketh nothing against this 
 conclusion which I have drawn from the other words, that are plain. 
 Nevertheless, because upon this place there hath been an argument taken, 
 to prove the fire of purgatory, I will also here offer you my conjecture con- 
 cerning the meaning of this trial of doctrines, and saving of men as by fire. 
 The apostle here seemeth to allude to the words of the prophet Zechariah 
 (xiii. 8, 9), who speaking of the restoration of the kingdom of God, saith 
 thus : " Two parts therein shall be cut off, and die, but the third shall be 
 left therein ; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine 
 them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried ; they shall call 
 on the name of the Lord, and I will hear them." The day of judgment is 
 the day of the restoration of the kingdom of God ; and at that day it is, 
 that St. Peter tells us (2 Pet. iii. 7, 10, 12) shall be the conflagration of the 
 world, wherein the wicked shall perish ; but the remnant which God will 
 save, shall pass through that fire unhurt, and be therein (as silver and gold 
 are refined by the fire from their dross) tried, and refined from their idolatry, 
 and be made to call upon the name of the true God. Alluding whereto, 
 St. Paul here saith, that " the day," that is, the day of judgment, the great 
 day of our Saviour's coming to restore the kingdom of God in Israel, shall 
 try every man's doctrine, by judging which are gold, silver, precious stones, 
 wood, hay, stubble ; and then they that have built false consequences on 
 the true foundation, shall see their doctrines condenmed ; nevertheless they 
 themselves shall be saved, and pass unhurt through this universal fire, and 
 live eternally, to call upon the name of the true and only God. In which 
 sense there is nothing that accordeth not with the rest of Holy Scripture, 
 or any glimpse of the fire of purgatory. 
 
 But a man may here ask, whether it be not as necessary to salvation, to 
 believe, that God is omnipotent ; Creator of the world ; that Jesus Christ 
 is risen ; and that all men else shall rise again from the dead at the last 
 day ; as to believe that "Jesus is the Christ." To which I answer, they 
 are : and so are many more articles : but they are such as are contained 
 in this one, and may be deduced from it, with more or less difficulty. For 
 who is there that does not see that they who believe Jesus to be the Son 
 of the God of Israel, and that the Israelites had for God the Omnipotent 
 Creator of all things, do therein also believe that God is the Omnipotent 
 
270 OF A -CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Creator of all things ? Or how can a man believe that Jesus is the king 
 that shall reign eternally, unless he believe Him also risen again from the 
 dead ? For a dead man camiot exercise the office of a king. In sum, he 
 thatholdeth this foundation, "Jesus is the Christ," holdeth expressly all 
 that he seeth rightly deduced from it, and impUcitly all that is consequent 
 thereunto, though he have not skill enough to discern the consequence. 
 And therefore it holdeth slill good, that the belief of this one article is 
 sufficient faith to obtain remission of sins to the " penitent,' and conse- 
 quently to bring them into the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 Now that I have shown that all the obedience required to salvation con- 
 sisteth in the will to obey the law of God, that is to say, in repentance ; and 
 all ihe faith required to the same is comprehended in the belief of this 
 article, "Jesus is the Christ;" I will further allege those places of the 
 Gospel that prove that all that is necessary to salvation is contained in both 
 these joined together. The men to whom St. Peter preached on the day of 
 Pentecost, next after the ascension of our Savionr, asked him and the rest 
 of the apostles, saying (Acts ii. 37), " Men and brethren, what shall we do ? ' 
 To whom St. Peter answered (in the next verse), " Repent, and be baptized 
 every one of you, for the remission of sins, and ye thall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost." Therefore repentance and baptism, that is, believing 
 that "Jesus is the Christ," is all that is necessary to salvation. Again, our 
 Saviour being asked by a certain ruler (Luke xviii. 18), " What shall I do to 
 inherit eternal life?" answered (verse 20), "Thou knowest the command- 
 ments, do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false 
 witness, honour thy father and thy mother." Which when he said he had 
 observed, our Saviour added (verse 22), " Sell all thou hast, give it to the 
 poor, and come and follow me : " which was as much as to say. Rely on nie 
 that am the king. Therefore to fulfil the law, and to believe that Jesus is 
 the king, is all that is required to bring a man to eternal life. Thirdly, St. 
 Paul saith (Rom. i. 17), " The just shall live by faith ; " not every one, but 
 the " just ; " therefore "faith " and "justice " (that is, the " will to be just," 
 or " repentance ") are all that is necessary to life eternal. And (Mark i. 15) 
 our Saviour preached, sajdng, " The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of 
 God is at hand, repent and believe the evangile," that is, the good news 
 that the Christ was come. Therefore, to repent, and to believe that Jesus 
 is the Christ, is all that is required to salvation. 
 — Seeing then it is necessary that faith and obedience, implied in the word 
 repentance, do both concur to our salvation ; the question by which of the 
 two we are justified, is impertinently disputed. Nevertheless, it will not be 
 impertinent to make manifest in what manner each of them contributes 
 thereunto ; and in what sense it is said, that we are to be justified by the 
 one, and by the other. And first, if by righteousness be understood the 
 justice of the works themselves, there is no man that can be .saved ; for there 
 is none that hath not transgressed the law of God. And therefore when we 
 are said to be justified by works, it is to be understood of the will, which 
 God doth always accept for the work itself, as well in good as in evil men. 
 And in this sense only it is that a man is called "just " or " unjust ;" and 
 that his justice justifies him, that is, gives him the title, in God's acceptation, 
 of "just;" and renders him capable of " living by his faith," which before 
 he was not. So tliat justice justifies in that sense in which to "justify" is 
 the same as that to " denominate a man just ; " and not in the signification 
 of discharging the law ; whereby the punishment of his sins should be 
 unjust. 
 
 But a man is then also said to be justified when his plea, though in itself 
 insufficient, is accepted j as when we plead our will, our endeavour to fulfil 
 
IVHA T NECES.'^AR Y TO SAL VA TION. 271 
 
 the law, and repent us of our failings, and God accepteth it for the perform- 
 ance itself. And because God accepteth not the will for the deed, but only 
 in the faithful ; it is therefore faith that makes good our plea ; and in this 
 sense it is that faith only justifies. So that "faith" and "obedience" are 
 both necessary to salvation ; yet in several senses each of them is said to 
 justify. 
 
 Having thus shown what is necessary to salvation, it is not hard to 
 reconcile our obedience to God with our obedience to the civil sovereign ; 
 who is either Christian or infidel. If he be a Christian, he alloweth the 
 belief of this article, that "Jesus is the Christ ;" and of all the articles that 
 are contained in, or are by evident consequence deduced from it : which is 
 all the faith necessary to salvation. And because he is a sovereign, he 
 requireth odedience to all his own, that is, to all the civil laws ; in which 
 also are contained all the laws of Nature, that is, all the laws of God : for 
 besides the laws of Nature, and the laws of the Church, which are part of 
 the civil law (for the Church that can make laws is the commonwealth), 
 there be no other laws divine. Whosoever therefore obeyeth his Christian 
 sovereign, is not thereby hindered, neither from believing, nor from obeying 
 God. But suppose that a Christian king should from this foundation 
 " Jesus is the Christ, " draw some false consequences, that is to say, make 
 some superstructions of hay or stubble, and command the teaching of the 
 same ; yet seeing St. Paul says he shall be saved ; much more shall he be 
 saved, that teacheth them by his command ; and much more yet, he that 
 teaches not, but only believes his lawful teacher. And in case a subject be 
 forbidden by the civil sovereign to profess some of those his opinions, upon 
 what just ground can he disobey ? Christian kings may err in deducing a 
 consequence, but who shall judge ? Shall a private man judge, when the 
 question is of his own obedience ? Or shall any man judge but he that is 
 appointed thereto by the Church, that is, by the civil sovereign that re- 
 presenteth it ? Or if the Pope, or an apostle judge, may he not err in 
 deducing of a consequence ? Did not one of the two, St. Peter or St. Paul, 
 err in a superstructure, when St. Paul withstood St. Peter to his face ? 
 There can therefore be no contradiction between the laws of God and the 
 laws of a Christian commonwealth. 
 
 And when the civil sovereign is an infidel, every one of his own subjects 
 that resisteth him, sinneth against the laws of God (for such are the laws of 
 Nature), and rejecteth the counsel of the apostles, that admonisheth all 
 Christians to obey their princes, and all children and servants to obey their 
 parents and masters in all things. And for their " faith," it is internal and 
 invisible ; they have the license that Naaman had, and need not put them- 
 selves into danger for it. But if they do, they ought to expect their reward 
 in heaven, and not complain of their lawful sovereign ; much less make 
 war upon him. For he that is not glad of any just occasion of martyrdom, 
 has not the faith he professeth, but pretends it only, to set some colour 
 upon his own contumacy. But what infidel king is so unreasonable, as 
 knowing he has a subject, that waiteth fot the second coming of Christ, 
 after the present world shall be burnt, and intendeth then to obey him 
 (which is the intent of believing that Jesus is the Christ), and in the 
 meantime thinketh himself bound to obey the laws of that infidel king 
 (which all Christiana are obliged in conscience to do), to put to death or to 
 persecute such a subject ? ■ 
 
 And thus much shall suffice concerning the kingdom of God and policy 
 ecclesiastical. Wherein I pretend not to advance any position of my own, 
 but only to show what are the consequences that seem to me deducible from 
 the principles of Christian politics (which are the Holy Scriptures^, in con- 
 
272 OF A CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 firraation of the power of civil sovereigns, and the duty of their subjects. 
 And in the allegaiion of Scripture I have endeavoured to avoid such texts as 
 are of obscure or controverted interpretation ; and to allege none, but in such 
 sense as is most plain and agreeable to the harmony and scope of the whole 
 Bible ; which was written for the re-establishment of the kingdom of God 
 in Christ. For it is not the bare words, but the scope of the writer, that 
 giveth the true light by which any writing is to be interpreted ; and they 
 that insist upon single texts, without considering the inain design, can derive 
 nothing from them' clearly ; but rather by casting atoms of Scripture, as dust 
 before men's eyes, make everything more obscure than it is ; an ordinary 
 artifice of those that seek not the truth, but their own advantage. 
 
PART IV.— OF THE KINGDOM OF 
 DARKNESS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Of Spiritual Darkness, from Misinterpretation of Scripture, 
 
 Besides these sovereign powers, "divine "and " human,'' of which I have 
 hitherto discoursed, there is mention in Scripture of another power, namely 
 (Eph. vi. 12), that of " the rulers of the darkness of this world ; " (Matt. . 
 xii. 26), "the kingdom of Satan ;" and (Matt. ix. 34), " the principality of 
 Beelzebub over demons," that is to say, over phantasms that appear in the 
 air : for which cause Satan is also called (Eph. ii. 2), " the prince of the 
 power of the air ; " and, because he ruleth in the darkness of this world 
 (John xvi. 11), " the prince of this world ; " and in consequence hereunto, 
 they who are under his dominion, in opposition to the faithful (who are the 
 " children of the light "), are called the " children of darkness." For seeing 
 Beelzebub is prince of phantasms, inhabitants of his dominion of air and 
 darkness, the children of darkness, and these demons, phantasms, or spirits 
 of illusion, signify allegorically the same thing. This considered, the 
 kingdom of darkness, as it is set forth in these and other places of the 
 Sciiplure, is nothing else but a " confederacy of deceivers, that to obtain 
 domiiiinn over men in this present world endeavour by dark and erroneous 
 doctrines to extinguish in them the light both of Nature and of the Gospel, 
 and so to disprepare them for the kingdom of God to come." 
 
 As men that are utterly deprived from their nativity of the light of the 
 bodily eye have no idea at all of any such light ; and no man conceives in 
 his imagination any greater light than he hath at some time or other per- 
 ceived by his outward senses : so also is it of the light of the Gospel, and of 
 the light of the understanding, that no man can conceive there is any greater 
 degree of it than that which he hath already attained unto. And from hence 
 it comes to pass that men have no other means to acknowledge their own 
 darkness but only by reasoning from the unforeseen mischances that befall 
 them in their ways. The darkest part of the kingdom of Satan is that which 
 is without the Cluirch of God ; that is to say, amongst them that believe 
 not in Jesus Christ. But we cannot say that therefore the Church enjoyetb, 
 as the land of Goshen, all the light which to the performance of the work 
 enjoined us by God is necessary. Whence comes it that in Christendom 
 there has been, almost from the time of the apostles, such justling of one 
 another out of their places, both by foreign and civil war ; such stumbling 
 at every little asperity of their own fortune, and every httle eminence of 
 that of other men, and such diversity of ways in running to the same mark, 
 " felicity," if it be not night amongst us, or at least a mist ? We are there- 
 fore yet in the dark, - i 
 
274 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 The enemy has been here in the night of our natural ignorance and 
 sown the tares of spiritual errors ; and that, first, by abusing and putting 
 out the light of the Scriptures : for we err, not knowing the Scnptures. 
 Secondly, by introducing the demonology of the heathen poets, that is to 
 say, their fabulous doctrine concerning demons, which are but idols, or 
 phantasms of the brain, without any real nature of their own, distinct fi-om 
 human fancy ; such as are dead men's ghosts, and fairies, and other matter 
 of old wives' tales. Thirdly, by mixing with the Scripture divers relics of 
 the religion, and much of the vain and erroneous philosophy of the Greeks, 
 espeolally of Aristotle. Fourthly, by mingling with both these, false or 
 uncertain traditions, and feigned or uncertain history. And so we come 
 to err, " by giving heed to seducing spirits," and the demonology of such 
 . "as speak lies in hypocrisy ;" or as it is in the original (i Tim. ly. i, 2), 
 "of those that play the part of liars, with a seared conscience, that is, 
 conti-ary to their own knowledge. Concerning the first of these, which is 
 the seducing of men, by the abuse of Scripture, I intend to speak briefly in 
 this chapter. , . , , .. ., . 
 
 The greatest and main abuse of Scripture, and to which almost the rest 
 are either consequent or subservient, is the wresting of it, to prove that the 
 kingdom of God, mentioned so often in the Scripture, is the present 
 Church, or multitude of Christian men now living, or that being dead, are 
 to rise again at the last day: whereas the kingdom of God vras first 
 instituted by the ministry of Moses, over the Jews only; who were there- 
 fore called His peculiar people ; and ceased afterward, in the election 
 of Saul, when they refused to be governed by God any more, and demanded 
 a king after the manner of the nations ; which God himself consented 
 unto, as I have more at large proved before in chapter xxxv. After that 
 time, there was no other kingdom of God in the world, by any pact or 
 otherwise, than He ever was, is, and shall be king of all men, and of all 
 creatures, as governing according to His will, by His infinite power. 
 Nevertheless, He promised by His prophets to restore this His govern- 
 ment to them again, when the time He hath in His secret counsel 
 appointed for it shall be fully come, and when they shall turn unto 
 Him by repentance and amendment of life. And not only so, but He 
 invited the Gentiles to come in and enjoy fhe happiness of His reign, on the 
 same conditions of conversion and repentance ; and He promised also to 
 send His Son into the world, to expiate the sins of them all by His death, 
 and to prepare them by His doctrine to receive Him at His second coming. 
 Which second coming not yet being, the kingdom of God is not yet come, 
 and we are not now under any other kings by pact, but our civil sove- 
 reigns ; saving only, that Christian men are already in the kingdom of 
 grace, inasmuch as they have already the promise of being received at His 
 coming again. 
 
 Consequent to this error, that the present Church is Christ's kingdom, 
 there ought to be some one man, or assembly, by whose mouth our 
 Saviour, now in heaven, speaketh, giveth law, and which representeth His 
 person to all Christians : or divers men, or divers assemblies, that do the 
 same to divers parts of Christendom. This power regal under Christ, 
 being challenged, universally by the Pope, and in particular common- 
 wealths by assemblies of the pastors of the place (when the Scripture gives 
 it to none but to civil sovereigns), comes to be so passionately disputed, 
 that it putteth out the light of Nature, and causeth so great a darkness in 
 men's understanding, that they see not who it is to whom they have 
 engaged their obedience. 
 
 Consequent to this claira.of the Pope to be vicar-general of Christ in the 
 present Church (supposed to be that kingdom of His to which we are 
 
MISINTERPRETA TION OF SCRIPTURE. 275 
 
 addressed in the Gospel), is the doctrine, that it is necessaiy for a Christian 
 king to receive his crown by a bishop ; as if it were from that ceremony 
 Ihat he derives the clause oi Dei gratia in his title; and that then only he 
 ii made king by the favour of God, when he is crowned by the authority of 
 God's universal vicegerent on earth ; and that every bishop, whosoever be 
 his sovereign, taketh at his consecration an oath of absolute obedience to 
 Ihe Pope. Consequent to the same, is the doctrine of the fourth Council of 
 J^teran, held under Pope Innocent the Third (chap. iii. De Hiereiicis), 
 " that if a king at the Pope's admonition, do not purge his kingdom of 
 heresies, and being excommunicate for the same, do not give satisfaction 
 within a year, his subjects are absolved of the bond of their obedience." 
 Where, by heresies are understood all opinions which the Church of Rome 
 hath forbidden to be maintained. And by this means, as often as there is 
 any repugnancy between the political designs of the Pope, and other 
 Christian princes, as there is very often, there ariseth such a mist amongst 
 their subjects, that they know not a stranger that thrusteth himself into the 
 throne of their lawful prince, from him whom they had themselves placed 
 there ; and in this darkness of mind are made to fight one against another, 
 without discerning their enemies from their friends, under the conduct of 
 another man's ambition. 
 
 From the same opinion, that the present Church is the kingdom of God, 
 it proceeds that pastors, deacons, and all other ministers of the Church, 
 take the name to themselves of the " clergy ; " giving to other Christians 
 the name of "laity," that is, simply " people." For clergy signifies those 
 whose maintenance is that revenue, which God having reserved to himself 
 during His reign over the Israelites, assigned to the tribe of Levi (who were 
 to be His public ministers, and had no portion of land set them out to live 
 on as their brethren), to be their inheritance. The Pope therefore, pre- 
 tending the present Church to be, as the realm of Israel, the kingdom of 
 God, challenging to himself and his subordinate ministers the like revenue, 
 as the inheritance of God, the name of clergy was suitable to that claim. 
 And thence it is that tithes and other tributes paid to the Levites, as God's 
 right, amongst the Israelites, have a long time been demanded, and taken 
 of Christians, by ecclesiastics, jure divino, that is, in God's right. By which 
 means the people everywhere were obliged to a double tribute ; one to the 
 state, another to the clergy ; whereof, that to the clergy, being the tenth of 
 their revenue, is double to that which a king of Athens, and esteemed a 
 tyrant, exacted of his subjects for the defraying of all public charges : for 
 he demanded no more but the twentieth part, and yet abundantly main- 
 tained therewith the commonwealth. And in the kingdom of the Jews, 
 during the sacerdotal reign of God, the tithes and offerings were the whole 
 public revenue. 
 
 From the s'ame mistaking of the present Church for the kingdom of God, 
 came in the distinction between the " civil " and the " canon " laws : the 
 civil law being the acts of "sovereigns " in their own dominions, and the 
 canon law being the acts of the Pope in the same dominion. Which 
 canons, though they were but canons, Ihat is, " rules propounded," and 
 but voluntarily received by Christian princes, till the translation of the 
 empire to Charlemagne , yet afterwards, as the power of the Pope in- 
 creased, became " rules commanded," and the emperors themselves, to 
 avoid greater mischiefs, which the people blinded might be led into, were 
 forced to let them pass for laws. 
 
 From hence it is, that in all dominions where the Pope's ecclesiastical 
 power is entirely received, Jews, Turks, and Gentiles, are in the Roman 
 Church tolerated in their religion, as far forth, as in the exercise and 
 profession thereof they offend not against the civil power : whereas in a 
 
276 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 Christian, though a stranger, not to be of the Roman religion, is capital ; 
 because the Pope pretendeth that all Christians are his subjects. For 
 otherwise it were as much against the law of nations to persecute a 
 Christian stranger, for professing the religion of his own country, as an 
 infidel ; or rather more, inasmuch as they that are not against Christ, 
 are with Him. 
 
 From the same it is, that in every Christian s(ate there are certain men 
 that are exempt, by ecclesiastical liberty, from the tributes and from the 
 tribunals of the civil state ; for so are the secular clergy, besides monks and 
 friars, which in many places bear so great a proportion to the common 
 people, as if need were, there might be raised out of them alone an army, 
 sufficient for any war the Church militant should employ them in, against 
 their own or other princes. 
 
 A second general abuse of Scripture, is the turning of consecration into 
 conjuration, or enchantment. To " consecrate " is, in Scripture, to offer, 
 give, or dedicate, in pious and decent language and gesture, a man, or any 
 other thing to God, by separating of it from com mon use ; that is to say, to 
 sanctify, or make it God's, and to be used only by those' whom God hath 
 appointed to be His public ministers (as I have already proved at large in 
 the xxxvth chapter), and thereby to change, not the thing consecrated, but 
 only the use of it, from being profane and comm on, to be holy, and pecu- 
 liar to God's service. But when by such words, the nature or quality of 
 the thing itself is pretended to be changed, it is not consecration, but 
 either an extraordinary work of God, or a vain and impious conjuration. 
 But seeing, for the frequency of pretending the change of nature in their 
 consecrations, it cannot be esteemed a work extraordinary, it is no other 
 than a "conjuration" or " incantation," whereby they would have men to 
 beheve an alteration of Nature that is not, cont rary to the testimony of 
 man's sight, and of all the rest of his senses. As for example, when the 
 priest, instead of consecrating bread and wine to God's peculiar service in 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper (which is but a separation of it from 
 the common use, to signify, that is, to put men in mind of their re- 
 demption, by the passion of Christ, whose body was broken, and 
 blood shed upon the cross for our transgressions), pretends, that by 
 saying of the words of our Saviour, " This is my body," and " This is my 
 blood," the nature of bread is no more there, but His very body ; not- 
 withstanding there appeareth not to the sight, or other sense of the receiver, 
 anything that appeared not before the consecration. The Egyptian con- 
 jurers, that are said to have turned their rods to serpents, and the water 
 into blood, are thought but to have deluded the senses of the spectators by 
 a false show of things, yet are esteemed enchanters. But what should we 
 have thought of them, if there had appeared in their rods nothing like a 
 serpent, and in the water enchanted nothing like blood, nor like anything 
 else but water, but that they had faced down the king, that they were ser- 
 pents that looked like rods, and that it was blood that s -emed water ? 
 That had been both enchantment and lying. And yet in this daily act 
 of the priest they do the v^y same, by turning the holy wtrds into the 
 manner of a charm, which produceth nothing new to the senso ; but they 
 face us down, that it hath turned the bread into a man ; nay more, into a 
 God ; and require men to worship it, as if it were our Saviour himself 
 present God and man, and thereby to commit most gross idolatry. For if 
 it be enough to excuse it of idolatry, to say it is no more bread, but 
 God ; why should not the same excuse serve the Egyptians, in case they 
 had the faces to say, the leeks and onions they worshipped were not 
 very leeks and onions, but a divinity imder their "species," or likeness. 
 The words, " This is my body," are equivalent to these, " this signifies," 
 
MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 277 
 
 or " represents my body ; " and it is an ordinary figure of speech : but to 
 take it literally is an abuse ; nor though so taken, can it extend any 
 further than to the bread which Christ himself with His own hands con- 
 secrated. For He never said that of what bread soever, any priest what- 
 soever should say, "This is my body," or " This is Christ's body," the 
 same should presently be transubstantiated. Nor did the Church of Rome 
 ever establish this transubstantiation till the time of Innocent the Third ; 
 which was not above 500 years ago, when the power of Popes was at the 
 highest, and the darkness of the time grown so great, as men discerned 
 not the bread that was given them to eat, especially when it was stamped 
 with the figure of Christ upon the cross, as if they would have men 
 believe it were transubstantiated, not only into the body of Christ, but 
 also into the wood of His cross, and that they did eat both together in 
 the sacrament. 
 
 The like incantation, instead of consecration, is used also in the sacrament 
 of baptism : where the abuse of God's name in each several person, and in 
 the whole Trinity, with the sign of the cross at each name, maketh up the 
 charm. At first, when they make the holy water, the priest saith, " I 
 conjure thee, thou creature of water, in the name of God the Father 
 Almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, and in 
 virtue of the Holy Ghost, that thou become conjured water, to drive away 
 all the powers of the enemy, and to eradicate and supplant the enemy," 
 &c. And the same in the benediction of the salt to be mingled wiih it : 
 "That thou become conjured salt, that all phantasms and knavery of 
 the devil's fraud may fly and depart from the place wherein thou art 
 sprinkled ; and every unclean spirit be conjured by Him that shall come to 
 judge the quick and the dead." The same in the benediction of the oil : 
 " That all the power of the enemy, all the host of the devil, all assaults and 
 phantasms of Satan, may be driven away by this creature of oil." And for 
 the infant that is to be baptized, he is subject to many charms : first, at the 
 church door the priest blows thrice in the child's face, and says : " Go out 
 of him, unclean spirit, and give place to the Holy Ghost the Comforter." 
 As if all children, till blown on by the priest, were demoniacs. Again, 
 before his entrance into the church, he saith as ' before, " I conjure thee, 
 &c., to go out, and depart from this servant of God." And again the same 
 exorcism is repeated once more before he be baptized. These, and some 
 other incantations, are those that are used instead of benedictions and con- 
 secrations, in administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper ; wherein everything that serveth to those holy uses, except the un- 
 hallowed spittle of the priest, hath some set form of exorcism. 
 
 Nor are the other rites, as of marris^e, of extreme unction, of visitation 
 of the sick, of cqnsecrating churches and churchyards, and the like, exempt 
 from charms ; inasmuch as there is in them the use of enchanted oil and 
 water, with the abuse of the cross, and of the holy word of David, asperges 
 me Domine hyssopo, as things of efficacy to drive away phantasms and 
 imaginary spirits. 
 
 Another general error is from the misinterpretation of the words " eternal 
 life," "everlasting death," and the "second death." For though we read 
 plainly in Holy Scripture that God created Adam in an estate of living for 
 ever, which was conditional, that is to say, if he disobeyed not His com- 
 mandment ; which was not essential to human nature, but consequent to 
 the virtue of the tree of life : whereof he had liberty to eat, as long as he 
 had not sinned ; and that he was thrust out of Paradise after he had sinned, 
 lest he should eat thereof, and live for ever ; and that Christ's Passion is a 
 discharge of sin to all that believe on Him ; and by consequence, a restitu- 
 tion of eternal life to all the faithful, and to them only : yet the doctrine is 
 
278 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 now, and hath been a long lime far otherwise ; namely, that every man hath 
 eternity of life by nature, inasmuch as his soul is immortal. So that the 
 flaming sword at the entrance of Paradise, though it hinder a man from 
 coming to the tree of life, hinders him not from the immortality which God 
 took from him for his sin ; nor makes him to need the sacrificing of Christ, 
 for the- recovering of the same ; and consequently, not only the faithful and 
 righteous, but also the wicked and the heathen, shall enjoy eternal life, 
 without any death at all ; much less a second, and everlasting death. To 
 salve this, it is said, that by second and everlasting death, is meant a second, 
 and everlasting life, but in torments ; a figure never used but in this very 
 case. 
 
 All which doctrine is founded only on some of the obscurer places of the 
 New Testament ; which nevertheless, the whole scope of the Scripture 
 considered, are clear enough in a different sense, and unnecessary to the 
 Christian faith. For supposing that when a man dies, there remaineth 
 nothing of him but his carcass ; cannot God, that raised inanimated dust 
 and clay into a living creature by His word, as easily raise a dead carcass to 
 life again, and continue him alive for ever, or make him die again, by 
 another word? The "soul" in Scripture, signifieth always, either the life 
 or the living creature; and the body and soul jointly, the "body alive." 
 In the fifth day of the creation, God said : Let the waters produce reptile 
 animce viventis, the creeping thing that hath in it a living soul ; the English 
 translate it, "that hath life." And again, God created whales, et omneni 
 animain vivcntem\ which in the English is, " every living creature." And 
 likewise of man, God made him of the dust of the earth, and breathed in 
 his face the breath of life, et Jactus est homo in animam viventtm, that is, 
 " and man was made a living creature. " And after Noah came out of the 
 ark, God saith. He will no more smite omnem animam viventetn, that is, 
 " every living creature." And (Deut. xii. 23), " Eat not the blood, for the 
 blood is the soul ; " that is, " the life. " From which places, if by " soul " 
 were meant a " substance incorporeal, " with an existence separated from the 
 body, it might as well be inferred of any other living creature as of man. 
 But that the souls of the faithful, are not of their own nature, but by God's 
 special grace, to remain in their bodies, from the resurrection to all eternity, 
 I have already, I think, sufficiently proved out of the Scriptures, in chapter 
 xxxviii. And for the places of the New Testament, where it is said tliat 
 any man shall be cast body and soul into hell fire, it is no more than body 
 and life ; that is to say, they shall be cast alive into the perpetual fire of 
 Gehenna. 
 
 This window it is that gives entrance to the dark doctrine, first, of eternal 
 torments; and afterwards of purgatory, and consequently of the walking 
 abroad, especially in places consecrated, solitary, or dark,' of the ghosts of 
 men deceased ; and thereby to the pretences of exorcism and conjuration of 
 phantasms ; as also of invocation of men dead ; and to the doctrine of in- 
 dulgences, that is to say, of exemption for a time, or for ever, from the fire 
 of purgatory, wherein these incorporeal substances are pretended by burning 
 to be cleansed, and made fit for heaven. For men being generally possessed 
 before the time of our Saviour, by contagion of the demonology of the 
 Greek", or an opinion that the souls of men were substances distinct from 
 their bodies, and therefore that when the body was dead, the soul of every 
 man, whether godly or wicked, must subsist somewhere by virtue of its own 
 nature, without acknowledging therein any supernatural gift of God ; the 
 doctors of the Church doubted a long time, what was the place which they 
 were to abide in, till they should be reunited to their bodies in the resurrec- 
 tion ; supposing for a while, they lay under the altars ; but afterwards the 
 Church of Rome found it more profitable to build for them this place of 
 
MISINTERPRE TA TION OF SCRIP TURE. 279 
 
 pur^tory ; which by some other Churches in this latter age has been de- 
 mohshed. 
 
 Let us now consider what texts of Scripture seem most to confirm these 
 three general errors, I have here touched. As for those which Cardinal 
 Bellarmine hath alleged, for the present kingdom of God administered by 
 the Pope, than which there are none that make a better show of proof ; I 
 have already answered them ; and made it evident that the kingdom of 
 God, instituted by Moses, ended in the election of Saul ; after which time 
 the priest of his own authority never deposed any king. That which the high 
 priest did to Athaliah, was not done in his own right, but in the right of 
 the young king Joash her son ; but Solomon in his own right deposed the 
 high priest Abiathar, and set up another in his place. The most difficult 
 place to answer, of all those that can be brought to prove the kingdom of 
 God by Christ is already in this world, is alleged, not by Bellarmine, nor 
 any other of the Church of Rome ; but by Beza, that will have it to begin 
 from the resurrection of Christ. But whether he intend thereby to entitle 
 the presbytery to the supreme power ecclesiastical in the commonwealth 
 of Geneva, and consequently to every presbytery in every other common- 
 wealth, or to princes, and other civil sovereigns, I do not know. For the 
 presbytery hath challenged the power to excommunicate their own king.?, 
 and to be the supreme moderators in religion, in the places where they 
 have that form of Church -government, no less than the Pope challengeth 
 it universally. 
 
 The words are (Mark ix. i), " Verily I say unto you, that there be some 
 of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen 
 the kingdom of God come with power," Which words, if taken grammati- 
 cally, make it certain that either some of those men that stood by Christ at 
 that time, are yet alive ; or else, that the kingdom of God must be now in 
 this present world. And then there is another place more difficult. For 
 when the apostles, after our Saviour's resurrection, and immediately before 
 His ascension, asked our Saviour, saying (Acts i. 6), "Wilt thou at this 
 time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? " He answered them, " It is not 
 for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His 
 own power ; but ye shall receive power by the coming of the Holy Ghost 
 upon you, and ye shall be my (martyrs) witnesses both in Jerusalem, and 
 inalljudea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 
 ;Which is as much as to say, " My kingdom is not yet come, nor shall you 
 foreknow when it shall come ; for it shall come as a thief in the night ; but 
 I will send you the Holy Ghost, and by Him you shall have power to bear 
 witness to all the world, by your preaching of my resurrection, and the 
 works I have done, and the doctrine I have taught, that they may believe 
 in me, and expect eternal life, at my coming again." How does this agree 
 with the coming of Christ's kingdom at the resurrection ? And that which 
 St. Paul says (i Thess. i. 9, 10), " That they turned from idols, to serve the 
 living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven ;" where to wait 
 for his Son from heaven, is to wait for His coming to be king in power ; 
 which were not necessary if His kingdom had been then present. Again, 
 if the kingdom of God began, as Beza on that place (Markix. I) would have 
 it, at the resurrection, what reason is there for Christians ever since the re- 
 surrection to say in their prayers, " Let thy kingdom come ? " It is therefore 
 manifest, that the words of St. Mark are not so to be interpreted. There be 
 some of them that stand here, saith our Saviour, that shall not taste of death 
 till they have seen the kingdom of God come in power. If then this kingdom 
 were to come at the resurrection of Christ, why is it said, "some of them," 
 rather than "all?" For they all lived till after Christ was risen. 
 
 But they that require an exact interpretation of this text, let them 
 
28o OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 interpret first tlie like words of our Saviour to St. Peter, concerning St. 
 John (chap. xxi. 22), " If I will that he tariy till I come, what is that to 
 thee?" upon which was grounded a report that he should not die. Never- 
 theless the truth of that report was neither confirmed, as well giounded; 
 nor refuted, as ill grounded on those words ; but left as a saying not under- 
 stood. The same difficulty is also in the place of St. Mark. And if it be 
 lawful to conjecture at their meaning, by that which immediately follows, 
 both here and in St. Luke, where the same is again repeated, it is not im- 
 probable to say they have relation to the Transfiguration, which is described 
 in the verses immediately following : where it is said, that "after six days 
 Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John " (not all, but some of 
 His disciples), " and leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by them- 
 selves, and was transfigured before them : and His raiment became shining, 
 exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them : and 
 there appeared unto them, Ellas with Moses, and they were talking with 
 Jesus," &c. So that they .saw Christ in glory and majesty, as He is to 
 come ; insomuch as " they were sore afraid." And thus the promise of our 
 Saviour was accomplished by way of " vision.'' For it was a vision, as may 
 probably be inferred out of St. Luke, that reciteth the same story (chap. ix. 
 28, &c. ), and saith, that Peter and they that were with him, were heavy 
 vrith sleep : but most certainly out of Matt. xvii. 9, where the same is a^in 
 related ; for our Saviour charged them, saying, " Tell no man the vision 
 until the Son of man be risen from the dead." Howsoever it be, yet there 
 can from thence be taken no argument to prove that the kingdom of God 
 taketh beginning till the day of judgment. 
 
 As for some other texts, to prove the Pope's power over civil sovereigns 
 (besides those of Bellarmine), as that the two swords that Christ and His 
 apostles had amongst them, were the spiritual and the temporal sword, 
 which they say St. Peter had given him by Christ ; and that of the two 
 luminaries, the greater signifies the Pope, and the lesser the king, one 
 might as well infer out of the first verse of the Bible, that by heaven is 
 meant the Pope, and by earth the king. Which is not arguing from Scrip- 
 tuie, but a wanton insulting over princes, that came in fashion after the 
 time the Popes were grown so secure of their greatness, as to contemn all 
 Christian kings, and treading on the necks of emperors, to mock both them 
 and the Scripture, in the words of Psalm xci. 13, "Thou shalt tread upon 
 the lion and the adder ; the young lion and the dragon thou shalt trample 
 under thy feet." 
 
 As for the rights of consecration, though they depend for the most part 
 upon the discretion and judgment of the governors of'the thurch, and not 
 upon the Scriptures ; yet those governors are obliged to such direction is 
 the natute of the action itself requireth, as that the ceremonies, words, and 
 gestures, be doth decent and significant, or at least conformable to the 
 action. When Moses consecrated the tabernacle, the altar, and the vessels 
 belonging to them (Exod. xl. 9), he anointed them with the oil which God 
 had commanded to be made for that purpose : and tliey were holy ; there 
 was nothing txorcisea to drive away phantasms. The same Moses, the 
 civil sovereign of kiael, when he consecrated Aaron, the high priest, and 
 his sons, did wash them with water, not exorcised water, put their garments 
 upon them, and anointed them with oil ; and they were sanctified to minis- 
 lei unto the Lord m the priest's office; which was a simple and decent 
 cleansing, and adorning them, before he presented them to God, to be His 
 seivants. When king Solomon, the civil sovereign of Israel, consecrated 
 the temple he haa built (I Kings viii.), he stood before all the congregation 
 of Israel, and having blessed them, he gave thanks to God, for putting into 
 the heait of his father to build it ; and for giving to himself the grace to 
 
Misinterpretation of scripture. 281 
 
 Accomplish the same : and then prayed unto Him, first, to accept that house, 
 thougli it were not suitable to His infinite greatness, and to hear the prayers 
 of His servants that should pray therein ; or, if they were absent, towards 
 it ; and lastly, he offered a sacrifice of peace-offering, and the house was 
 dedicated. Here was no procession ; the king stood still in his first place ; 
 no exorcised water ; no Asperges me, nor other impertinent application of 
 words spoken upon another occasion ; but a decent and rational speech, 
 and such as in making to God a present of his new-built house, was most 
 conformable to the occasion. 
 
 We read not that St. John did exorcise the water of Jordan ; nor Philip 
 the water of the river wherein he baptized the eunuch ; nor that any pastor 
 in the time of the apostles, did take his spittle, and put it to the nose of the 
 person to be baptized, and say, In odorem suavitaiis, that is, " for a sweet 
 savour unto the Lord;" wherein neither the ceremony of spittle, for the 
 uncleanness ; nor the application of that Scripture for the levity, can by any 
 authority of man be justified. 
 
 To prove that the soul separated from the body liveth eternally, not only 
 the souls of the elect, by especial grace, and restoration of the eternal life 
 which Adam lost by sin, and our Saviour restored by the sacrifice of him- 
 self to the faithful ; but also the souls of reprobates, as a property naturally 
 consequent to the essence of mankind, without other grace of God but that 
 which is universally given to all mankind ; there are divers places, which 
 at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn : but such, as when I 
 compare them with that which I have before (chapter xxxviii.) alleged out 
 of the xivth of Job, seem to me much more subject to a diverse interpreta- 
 tion than the words of Job. 
 
 And first there are the words of Solomon (Eccles. xii. 7), " Then shall the 
 dust return to dust, as it was, and the spirit shall return to God that gave 
 it.", Which may bear well enough, if there be no other text directly against 
 it, this interpretatton that God only knows, but man not, what becomes of 
 a man's spirit when he expireth ; and the same Solomon, in the same book 
 (chapter iii. 20, 21), delivereth the same sentence in the same sense I have 
 given it. His words are : " All go " (man and beast) " to the same place ; 
 all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again ; who knoweth that the spirit 
 of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to 
 the earth ? " That is, none knows but God ; nor is it an unusual phrase to 
 say of things we understand not, " God knows what," and " God knows 
 where." That of (Gen. v. 24) " Enoch walked with God, and he was 
 not ; for God took him ; " which is expounded (Heb. xi. 5), " He was 
 translated, that he should not die ; and was not found, because God had 
 translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony, that he 
 pleased God ; " making as much for the immorality of the body as of the 
 soul, proveth that this his translation was peculiai: to them that please God ; 
 not common to them with the wicked, and depending on grace, not on 
 nature. But on the contrary, what interpretation shall we give besides the 
 literal sense, of the words of Solomon (Eccles. iii. 19), " That which 
 befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth them ; 
 as the one dieth, so doth the other ; yea, they have all one breath " (one 
 spirit); "so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast, for all is 
 vanity." By the literal sense, here is no natural immortality of the soul ; nor 
 yet any lepugnancy with the life eternal which the elect shall enjoy by 
 grace. And (Eccles. iv. 3), " Better is he that hath not yet been, 
 than both they ; " that is than they that live, or have lived ; which, if the 
 soul of all them that have lived were immortal, were a hard saying ; for then 
 to have an immortal soul, were worse than to have no soul at all. And 
 again (chapter ix 5), " The living know they shall die, but the dead know 
 
282 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 not anything;" that is, naturally, and beFore the resurrection ot the 
 body. 
 
 Another place which seems lo make for a natural immortality of tlie soul, 
 is that where our Saviour saith that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are 
 living : but this is spoken of the promise of God, and of their certitude to 
 rise again, not of a life then actual ; and in the same sense that God said to 
 Adam, that on the day he should eat of the forbidden fruit, he should cer- 
 tainly die ; from that time forward he was a dead ma n by sentence ; but 
 not by execution, till almost a thousand years after. So Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob were alive by promise, then, when Christ spake ; but are not 
 actually till the resurrection. And the history of Dives and Lazarus makes 
 nothing against this, if we take it, as it is, for a parable . 
 
 But there be other places of the New Testament where an immortality 
 seemeth to be directly attributed to the wicked. For it is evident that 
 they shall all rise to judgment. And it is said besides in many places, that 
 they shall go into " everlasting fire, everlasting torments, everlasting 
 punishments ; and that the worm of conscience never dieth ;" and all this 
 is comprehended in the word "everlasting death," which is ordinarily 
 interpreted " everlasting life in torments." And yet I can find nowhere 
 that any man shall live in torments everlastingly. Also, it seemeth hard 
 to say, that God, who is the Father of mercies ; that doth in heaven and 
 earth all that He will ; that hath the hearts of a 11 men in His disposing ; 
 that worketh in men both to do and to will ; and without whose free gift 
 a man hath neither inclination to good, nor repentance of evil, should 
 punish men's transgressions without any end of^ time, and with all the 
 extremity of torture that men can imagine, and more. We are therefore to 
 consider what the meaning is of " everlasting fire," and other the like 
 phrases of Scripture. 
 
 I have showed already that the kingdom of God by Christ begiuneth at 
 the day of judginent ; that in that day the faithful shall rise again, with 
 glorious and spiritual bodies, and be His subjects in that His kingdom, which 
 shall be eternal : that they shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, 
 nor eat and drink, as they did in their natural bodies ; but live for ever in 
 their individual persons, without the specifical eternity of generation : and 
 that the reprobates also shall rise again, to receive punishments for their 
 sins : as also, that those of the elect, which shall be alive in their earthly 
 bodies at that day, shall have their bodies suddenly changed, and made 
 spiritual and immortal. But that the bodies of the reprobate, who make 
 the kingdom of Satan, shall also be glorious or spiritual bodies, or that 
 they shall be as the angels of God, neither eating, nor drinking, nor 
 engendering ; or that their life shall be eternal in their individual persons, 
 as the life of every faithful man is, or as the life of Adam had been if he 
 had not sinned, there is no place of Scripture to prove it ; save only these 
 places concerning eternal torments ; which may otherwise be interpreted-. 
 
 From whence may be inferred that as the elect after the resurrection shall 
 be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned ; so the 
 reprobate shall be in the estate that Adam and his posterity were in attet 
 the sin committed ; saving that God promised a Redeemer to Adam, and 
 such of his seed as should trust in Him, and repent ; but not to them that 
 should die in their sins, as do the reprobate. 
 
 These things considered, the texts that mention "eternal fire," " eternal 
 torments," or "the worm that never dieth," contradict not the doctrine of a 
 second and everlasting death, in the proper and natural sense of the word 
 "death." Tlie fire, or torments prepared for the wicked in Gehenna, 
 Tophet, or in what place soever, may continue for ever ; «nd there may 
 never want wicked men to be tormented in them 5 though not every nor 
 
MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 283 
 
 any one eternally. For tlie wicked being left in the estate they were in 
 after Adam's sin, may at the resurrection live as they did, marry, and give 
 in marri^e, and have gross and corruptible bodies, as all mankind now 
 have ; and consequently may engender perpetually, after the resurrection, 
 as they did before: for there is no place in Scripture to the contrary. For 
 St. Paul, speaking of the resurrection (I Cor. xv.) understandeth it only o( 
 the resurrection to life eternal ; and not the resurrection to punishment. 
 And of the first, he saith, that the body is "sown in corruption, raised in 
 incorruption ; sown in dishonour, raised in honour ; sown in weakness, 
 raised in power ; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body." There is 
 no such thing can be said of the bodies of them that rise to punishment. 
 So also our Saviour, when He speaketh of the nature of man after the 
 resurrection, meaneth the resurrection to life eternal, not to punishment. 
 The text is (Luke xx. verses 34, 35, 36) a fertile text : " The children of this 
 world marry, and are given in marriage ; but they that shall be counted 
 worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage : neither can they die any more ; for they 
 are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of 
 the resurrection." The children of this world, that are in the estate which 
 Adam left them in, shall marry, and be given in marriage ; that is, corrupt, 
 and generate successively : which is an immortality of the kind, but not of 
 the persons of men : they are not worthy to be counted amongst them that 
 shall obtain the next world, and an absolute resurrection from the dead ; but 
 only a short time, as inmates of that world ; and to the end only to receive 
 condign punishment for their contumacy. The elect are the only children 
 of the resurrection : that is to say, the sole heirs of eternal life : they only 
 can die no more, it is they that are equal to the angels, and that are the 
 children of God : and not the reprobate. To the reprobate there remaineth 
 after the resurrection a "second" and "eternal" death: between which 
 resurrection, and their second and eternal death, is but a time of punishment 
 and torment ; and to last by .succession of siimers thereunto, as long as the 
 kind of man by propagation shall endure ; which is eternally. 
 
 Upon this doctrine of the natural eternity of separated souls is founded, 
 as I said; the doctrine of purgatory. For supposing eternal life by grace 
 only, there is no life but the life of the body ; and no immortality till the 
 resurrection. The texts for purgatory alleged by Bellarmine out of the cano- 
 nical Scripture of the Old Testament are, first, the fasting of David for 
 Saul and Jonathan, mentioned 2 Sam. i. 12; and again, 2 Sam. iii. 35, for 
 the death of Abner. This fasting of David, he saith, was for the obtaining 
 of something for them at God's hands, after their death : because after he 
 had fasted to procure the recovery of his own child, as soon as he knew it 
 was dead, he called for meat. Seeing then the soul hath an existence 
 separate from the body, and nothing can be obtained by men's fasting for 
 the souls that are already either in heaven or hell, it foUoweth that there be 
 some souls of dead men, that are neither in heaven nor in hell ; and there- 
 fore they must be in some third place, which must be purgatory. And thus 
 with hard straining, he has wrested those places to the proof of a purgatory ; 
 whereas it is manifest that the ceremonies of mourning and fasting, when 
 they are used for the death of men, whose life was not profitable to the 
 mourners, they are used for honour's sake to their persons ; and when it is 
 done for the death of them by whose life the mourners had benefit, it pro- 
 ceeds from their particular damage. And so David honoured Saul and 
 Abner with his fasting ; and in the death oi his own child, recomforted 
 himself by receiving his ordinary food. 
 
 In the other places which he allegeth out of the Old Testament, there is 
 not BO much as any show or colour of proof. He brings in every text 
 
284 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 wherein there is the word " anger," or " fire," or " burning," or " purging," 
 or " cleansing, " in case any of the fathers have but in a sermon rhetorically 
 applied it to the doctrine of purgatory, already believed. The first verse of 
 Psalm xxxvii : " O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, nor chasten me in 
 thy hot displeasure ; " what were this to purgatory, if Augustine had not 
 applied the "wrath " to the fire of hell, and the " displeasure " to that of 
 purgatory? And what is it to purgatory, that of Psalm Ixvi. 12, " We went 
 through fire and water, and thou broughtest us to a moist place ;" and other 
 the like texts, with which the doctors of those times intended to adorn or 
 extend their sermons, or commentaries, haled to their purposes by force of 
 wit? 
 
 But he allegeth other places of the New Testament, that are not so easy 
 to be answered. And first that of Matt. xii. 32 : " Whosoever speaketh 
 a word against the Son of man. It shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
 speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
 world, nor in the world to come : " where he will have ptirgatory to be 
 the world to come, wherein some sins may be forgiven, which in this world 
 were not forgiven : notwithstanding that it is manifest, there are but three 
 worlds ; one from the creation to the flood, which was destroyed by water, 
 and is called in Scripture " the old world ; " another from the flood to the 
 day of judgment, which is "the present world," and shall be destroyed by 
 fire : and the third, which shall be from the day of judgment forward, ever- 
 lasting, which is called " the world to come ; " and in which it Ls agreed by 
 all, there shall be no purgatory, and therefore the world to come and pur- 
 gatory are inconsistent. But what then can be the meaning of those our 
 Saviour's words ? I confess they are very hardly to be reconciled with all 
 the doctrines now unanimously received : nor is it any shame to confess 
 the profoundness of the Scripture to be too great to be sounded by the 
 shortness of human understanding. Nevertheless, I may propound such 
 things to the consideration of more learned divines, as the text itself sug- 
 gesteth. And first, seeing to speak against the Holy Ghost, as being the 
 third person of the Trinity, is to speak against the Church, in which the 
 Hdy Ghost resideth ; it seemeth the comparison is made between the 
 easiness of our Saviour, in bearing with offences done to Him while He him- 
 self taught the world, that is, when He was on earth, and the severity of 
 the pastors after Him, against those which should deny their authority, 
 which was from the Holy Ghost. As if He should say, you that deny my 
 power ; nay, you that shall crucify me, shall be pardoned by me, as often 
 as you turn unto me by repentance : but if you deny the power of them that 
 teach you hereafter, by virtue of the Holy Ghost, they shall be inexorable, 
 arid shall not forgive you, but persecute you in this world, and leave you 
 without absolution (though you turn to me, unless you turn also to them), 
 to the punishments, as much as lies in them, of the world to come. And 
 so the words may be taken as a prophecy, or prediction concerning the 
 times, as they have long been in the Christian Church. Or if this be not 
 the meaning (for I am not peremptory in such difficult places), perhaps 
 there may be places left after the resurrection for the repentance of some 
 sinners. And there Is also another place that seemeth to agree therewith. 
 For considering the words of St. Paul (i Cor. xv. 29), " What shall they 
 do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all ? why also are 
 they baptized for the dead ? " a man may probably infer, as some have 
 done, that in St. Paul's time there was a custom, by receiving baptism for 
 the dead (as men that now believe, are sureties and undertakers for the faith 
 of infants, that are not capable of believing), to undertake for the persons 
 of their deceased friends, that they should be ready to obey, and receive 
 our Saviour for their king, at His coming again ; and then the forgiveness 
 
MISINTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 285 
 
 of sins in the world to come, has no need of a purgatory. But in both these 
 interpretations there is so much of paradox, that I trust not to them ; but 
 propound them to those that are thoroughly versed in the Scripture, to 
 inquire if there be no clearer place that contradicts them. Only of thus 
 much, I see evident Scripture to persuade me that there is neither the 
 word nor the thing of purgatory, neither in this, nor any other text; nor 
 anything that can prove a necessity of a place for the soul without the 
 body ; neither for the soul of Lazarus during the four days he was dead ; 
 nor for the souls of them which the Roman Church pretend to be tor- 
 mented now in purgatory. For God, that could give a life to a piece of 
 clay, hath the same power to give life again to a dead man, and renew his 
 inanimate and rotten carcass into a glorious, spiritual, and immortal 
 body. 
 
 Another place is that of i Cor. iii., where it is said, that they which build 
 stubble, hay, &c., on the true foundation, their work shall perish ; but 
 "they themselves shall be saved, but as through fire : " this fire, he will 
 have to be the fire of purgatory. The words, as I have said before, are an 
 allusion to those of Zech. xiii. 9, where he saith, ' ' I will bring the third part 
 through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as 
 gold is tried : " which is spoken of the coming of the Messiah in power and 
 glory ; that is, at the day of judgment, and conflagration of the present 
 world, wherein the elect shall not be consumed, but be refined ; that is, 
 depose their erroneous doctrines and traditions, and have them as it were 
 singed off; and shall afterwards call upon the name of the true God. In 
 like manner, the apostle saith of them, that holding this foundation, " Jesus 
 is the Christ, " shall build thereon some other doctrines that be erroneous, 
 that ihey shall not be con.sumed in that fire which reneweth the world, but 
 shall pass through it to salvation ; but so as to see and relinquish their 
 former errors. The builders, are the "pastors;" the foundation, that 
 "Jesus is the Christ;" the stubble and hay, " false consequences drawn 
 from it through ignorance, or frailty ; " the gold, silver, and precious stones, 
 are their " tiue doctrines ; " and tlieir refining or purging, the " relinquish- 
 ing of their errors." In all which there is no colour at all for the burning 
 of incorporeal, that is to say, impatible souls. 
 
 A third place is that of I Cor. xv. 29, before mentioned, concerning 
 baptism for the dead : out of which he concludeth, first, that prayers for the 
 dead are not unprofitable ; and out of that, that there is a fire ot purgatory ; 
 but neither of them rightly. For of many interpretations of the word 
 baptism, he approveth this in the first place, that by baptism is meant, 
 metaphorically, a baptism of penance ; and that men are in this sense 
 baptized, when they fast, and pray, and give alms : and so, baptism for the 
 dead, and prayer for the dead, is the same thing. But this is a metaphor, 
 of which there is no example, neither in the Scripture nor in any other use 
 of language ; and which is also discordant to the harmony and scope of the 
 Scripture. The word baptism is used (Mark x. 38, and Luke xii. 50), for 
 being dipped in one's own blood, as Christ was upon the cross, and as most 
 of the apoctles were, for giving testimony of Him. But it is hard to say that 
 prayer, fasting, and alms have any similitude with dipping. The same is 
 used also Matt. iii. 1 1 (which seemeth to make somewhat for purgatory) 
 for a purging with fire. But it is evident the fire and purging here men- 
 tioned is the same whereof the prophet Zechariah speaketh (chapter xiii. 9), 
 "I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them," &c. 
 And St. Peter after him (i Epistle i. 7), "That the trial of your faith, which 
 is much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with 
 fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory at the appearing of 
 Tesus Christ ; " and St. Paul (i Cor. iii. 13), " The fire shall try every man's 
 
286 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 work of what sort it is." But St. Peter and St. Paul speak of the fire that 
 shall be at the second appearing of Christ ; and the prophet Zechariah of 
 the day of judgment. And therefore this place of St. Matthew may be 
 interpreted of the same ; and then there will be no necessity of the fire of 
 purgatory. 
 
 Another interpretation of baptism for the dead is that which I have 
 before mentioned, which he preferreth to the second place of probability : 
 and thence also he inferreth the utility of prayer for the dead. For if after 
 the resurrection, such as have not heard of Christ, or not believed_ in Him, 
 may be received into Christ's kingdom, it is not in vain, after their death, 
 that their friends should pray for them, till they should be risen. But 
 granting that God, at the prayers of the faithful, may convert unto Him 
 some of those that have not lieard Christ preached, and consequently cannot 
 have rejected Christ, and that the charity of-men in that point cannot be 
 blamed ; yet this concludeth nothing for purgatory ; because to rise from 
 death to life is one thing ; to rise from purgatory to life is another ; as being 
 a rising from life to life, from a life in torments to a life in joy. 
 
 A fourth place is that of Matt. v. 25, 26 : " Agree wiih thine adversary 
 quickly, whilst ihou art in the way with him, lest ai any time the adversary 
 deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou 
 be cast into prison : verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come 
 out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. " In which allegory, 
 the offender is, the "sinner;" both the adversary and the judge is 
 "God;" the way is this "life; "the prison is the "grave;" the officer, 
 ' ' death ; " from which the sinner shall not rise again to life eternal, but 
 to a second death, till he have paid the utmost farthing, or Christ pay it 
 for him by His passion, which is a full ransom for all manner of sins, as 
 well lesser sins as greater crimes ; both being made by the passion of Christ 
 equally venial. 
 
 The fifth place is that of Matt. v. 22 : " Whosoever is angry with his 
 brother without a cause, shall be guilty in judgment : and whosoever shall 
 say to his brother, Raca, shall be guilty in the council : but whosoever 
 shall say, thou fool, shall be guilty to hell fire." From which words he 
 inferreth three sorts of sins and three sorts of punishments ; and that none 
 of those sms but the last shall be punished with hell fire ; and consequently, 
 that after this life there is punishment of lesser sins in purgatory. Of which 
 inference there is no colour in any interpretation that hath yet been given 
 of them. Shall there be a distinction after this life of courts of justice, as 
 there was amongst the Jews in our Saviour's time, to hear and determine 
 divers sorts of crimes, as the judges and the council? Shall not all judi- 
 cature appertain to Christ and His apostles ? To understand therefore this 
 text, we are not to consider it solitarily, but jointly with the words precedent 
 and subsequent. Our Saviour in this chapter interpreteth the law of Moses ; 
 which the Jews thought was then fulfilled when they had not trans- 
 gressed the grammatical sense thereof, howsoever they had transgressed 
 against the sentence or meaning of the legislator. Therefore whereas they 
 thought the sixth commandment was not br6ken but by killing a man : nor 
 the seventh but when a man lay with a woman not his wife ; our Saviour 
 tells them the inward anger of a man against his brother, if it be without j ust 
 cause, is homicide. You have heard, saith He, the law of Moses, " Thou 
 shalt not kill," and that " Whosoever shall kill, §hall be condemned before 
 the judges," or before the session of the Seventy : but I say unto you to be 
 angry with one's brother without cause, or to say unto him "Raca" oi 
 "Fool," is homicide, and shall be punished at the day of judgment and 
 session of Christ and His apostles with hell fire. So that those words 
 were not used to distiiiguish between divers crimes, and divers courts of 
 
OF DEMONOLOGY, ETC. 287 
 
 justice, and divers punishments ; but to tax the distinction between sin and 
 (in, which the Jews drew not from the differenoe of the will in obeying God, 
 but from the difference of their temporal courts of justice ; and to show 
 them that he that had the will to hurt his brother, though the effect appear 
 but in reviling, or not at all, shall be cast into hell fire, by the judges and 
 by the session, which shall be the same, not different, courts at the day of 
 judgment. This considered, what can be drawn from this text to maintain 
 purgatory I cannot imagine. 
 
 The sixth place is Luke xvi. 9 : " Make ye friends of the unrighteous 
 Mammon ; that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting taber- 
 nacles." This he alleges to prove invocation of saints departed. But the 
 sense is plain, that we should make friends with our riches of the poor j 
 and thereby obtain their prayers whilst they live. " He that giveth to the 
 poor, lendeth to the Lord." 
 
 The seventh is Luke xxiii. 42 : " Lord, remember me, when thou comest 
 into thy kingdom." Therefore, saith he, there is remission of sins after this 
 life. But the consequence is not good. Our Saviour then forgave him ; 
 and at His coming again in glory will remember to raise him again to life 
 eternal. , 
 
 The eighth is Acts ii. 24, where St. Peter saith of Christ, " that God had 
 raised Him up, and loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible 
 He should be holden of it : " which he interprets to be a descent of Christ 
 into purgatory, to loose some souls there from their torments : whereas it 
 is manifest that it was Christ that was loosed ; it was He that could not be 
 holden of death or the grave ; and not the souls in purgatory. But if that 
 which Beza says, in his notes on this place, be well observed, there is none 
 that will not see, that instead of " paiqs" it should be " bands ;"(_and then 
 there is no further cause to seek for purgatory in this text. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 OfDemomlogy, and other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles. 
 
 The impression made on the organs of sight by lucid bodies, either in 
 one direet line or in many lines, reflected from opaque, or refracted in the 
 passage through diaphanous bodies, produceth in living creatures, in whom 
 God hath placed such organs, an imagination of the object, from whence 
 the impression proceedeth; which imagination is called "sight;" and 
 seemelh not to be a mere imagination, but the body itself without us ; in 
 the same manner, as when a man violently presseth his eye, there appears 
 to him a light without and before him, which no man perceiveth but him- 
 self ; because there is indeed no such thing without him, but only a motion 
 in the interior organs, pressing by resistance outward, that makes him 
 think so. And the motion made by this pressure, continuing after the 
 object which caused it is removed, is that we call "imagination and 
 " memory ;" and, in sleep, and sometimes in great distemper of the organs 
 by sickness or violence, a ' ' dream ;" of which things I have akeady spoken 
 briefly in the second and third chapters. 
 
 This nature of sight having never been discovered by the ancient pre- 
 tendeirs to natural knowledge ; much less by those that consider not things 
 so remote, as that knowledge is, from their present use ; it was hard for 1 
 men to conceive of those images in the fahcy and in the sense, otherwise 
 than of thmgs really without us : which some, because they vanish away. 
 
288 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 they know not whither nor how, will have to be absolutely incorporeal, that 
 is to say, immaleiial, or forms without matter ; colour and figure, without 
 any coloured or figured body ; and that they can put on airy bodies as a gar- 
 ment, to make them visible when they will to our bodily eyes ; and 
 others say, are bodies and living creatures, but made of air, or other more 
 subtle and ethereal matter, which is, then, when they will be seen, con- 
 densed. But both of them agree on one general appellation of them, 
 "demons." As if the dead of whom they dreamed were not inhabitants 
 of their own brain, but of the air, or of heaven, or hell ; not phantasms, 
 but ghosts ; witli just as much reason as if one should say, he saw his own 
 ghost in a looking-glass, or the ghosts of the stars in a river ; or call the 
 ordinary apparition of the sun, of the quantity of about a foot, the 
 "demon," or ghost of that great sun that enlighteneth the whole visible 
 world : and by that means have feared them, as things of an unknown, 
 that is, of an unlimited power to do them good or harm ; and consequently, 
 given occasion to the governors of the heathen commonwealths to regulate 
 this their fear-, by establishing that "demonology" (in which the poets, as 
 principal priests of the heathen religion, were especially employed or re- 
 verenced), to the public peace, and to the obedience of subjects necessary 
 thereunto j and to make some of them good " demons," and others evil ; 
 the one as a spur to the observance, the other as reins to withhold them 
 from the violation of the laws. 
 
 What kind of things they were, to whom they attributed the name of 
 " demons," appeareth partly in the genealogy of their gods, written by 
 Hesiod, one of the most ancient poets of the Grecians ; and partly in other 
 histories ; of which I have observed some few before, in the twelfth 
 chapter of this discourse. 
 
 The Grecians, by their colonies and conquests, communicated their 
 language and writings into Asia, Egypt, and Italy ; and therein, by neces- 
 sary consequence their " demonology," or, as St. Paul calls it (i Tim. 
 iv. i), "their doctrines of devils." And by that means the contagion was 
 derived also to the Jews, both of Judea and Alexandria, and other parts, 
 whereinto they were dispersed. But the name of " demon " they did not, 
 as the Grecians, attribute to spirits both good and evil ; but to the evil 
 only : and to the good ' ' demons " they gave the name of the spirit of God ; 
 and esteemed those into whose bodies they entered to be prophets. In 
 sum, all singularity, if good, they attributed to the spirit of God ; and if 
 evil, to some "demon," but a KaKoSdi/uiv, an evil "demon," that is a 
 " devil." And therefore, they called " demoniacs," that is " possessed by 
 the devil," such as we call madmen or lunatics ; or such as had the falling 
 sickness, or that spoke anything which they, for want of understanding, 
 thought absurd. As also of an unclean person in a notorious degree, they 
 used to say he had an unclean spirit ; of a dumb man, that he had a dumb 
 devil ; and of John the Baptist (Matt. xi. i8), for the singularity of his 
 fasting, that he had a devil ; and of our Saviour, because He said, he that 
 keepeth His sayings should not see death in ceternMii (John viii. 52), ' ' Now 
 we know thou hast a devil ; Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead : " 
 and again, because He said (John vn. 20), " They went about to kill Him," 
 the people answered, " Thou hast a devil ; who goeth about to kill thee ? " 
 Whereby it is manifest that the Jews had the same opinions concerning 
 phantasms, namely, that ,they were not phantasms, that is, idols of the 
 brain, but things real and independent on the fancy. 
 
 which doctrine, if it be not true, why, may some say, did not our Saviour 
 contradict it, and teach the contrary? May, why does He use on divers 
 occasions such forms of speech as seem to confirm it ? To this I answer, 
 that first, where Christ saith (Luke xxiv. 39), ' ' A spirit hath not flesh and 
 
OF DEMONOLOGV, ETC. 289 
 
 bone," though He show that there be spirits, yet He denies not that they 
 are bodies. And where St. Paul says (i Cor. xv. 44), "we shall rise 
 spiritual bodies," lie acknowledgeth the nature of spirits, but that they are 
 bodily spirits ; which is not difficult to understand. For air and many 
 other things are bodies, though not flesh and bone, or any other gross body 
 to be discerned by the eye. But when our Saviour speaketh to the devil, 
 and commandeth him to go out of a man, if by the devil He meant a 
 disease, as frenzy, or lunacy, or a corporeal spirit, is not the speech 
 improper ? Can diseases hear ? Or can there be a corporeal spirit in a 
 body of flesh and bone, full already oi vital and animal spirits ? Are there 
 not therefore spirits that neither have bodies, nor are mere imaginations ? 
 To the first I answer, that the addressing of our Saviour's command to the 
 madness or lunacy He cureth, is no more improper than was His rebuking 
 of the fever, or of the wind and sea ; for neither do these hear ; or than 
 was the command of God, to the light, to the firmament, to the sun, and 
 stars, when He commanded them to be ; for they could not hear before 
 they had a being. But those speeches are not improper, because they 
 signify the power of God's word ; no more therefore is it improper to com- 
 mand madness, or lunacy, under the appellation of devils by which they 
 were then commonly understood, to depart out of a man's body. To the 
 second, concerning their being incorporeal, I have not yet observed any 
 place of Scripture, from whence it can be gathered that any man was ever 
 possessed with any other corporeal spirit, but that of his own, by which his 
 body is naturally moved. . 
 
 Our Saviour, immediately after the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in 
 the form of a dove, is said by St. Matthew (chapter iv. l) to have been 
 " led up by the Spirit into the wilderness ; " and the same is recited (Luke- 
 iv. I) in these words, "Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, was led in the 
 Spirit into the wilderness ; " whereby it is evident that by " Spirit " there 
 is meant the Holy Ghost. This cannot be interpreted for a possession ; 
 for Christ and the Holy Ghost are but one and the same substance ; 
 which is no possession of one substance or body by another. And whereas 
 in the verses following He is said " to have been taken up by the devil into 
 the holy city, and set upon a pinnacle of the temple," shall we conclude 
 thence that He was possessed of the devil, or carried thither by violence ? 
 And again, " carried thence by the devil into an exceeding high mountain, 
 who showed Him thence all the kingdoms of the world : " wherein we are 
 not to believe He was either possessed, or forced by the devil ; nor that any 
 mountain is high enough, according to the literal sense, to show Him one 
 whole hemisphere. What then can be the meaning of this place, other than 
 that He went of himself into the wilderness ; and that this carrying of Him 
 up and down from the wilderness to the city, and from thence into a moun- 
 tain, was a vision ? Conformable whereunto is also the phrase of St. Luke, 
 that He was led into the wilderness, not " by," but "in," the Spirit ; 
 whereas, concerning Ilis being taken up into the mountain, and unto the 
 pinnacle of the temple, he speaketh as St. Matthew doth : which suiteth 
 with the nature of a vision. 
 
 Again, where St. Luke (chap. xxii. 3, 4) says of Judas Iscariot, that 
 " Satan entered into him, and thereupon that he went and communed with 
 the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Christ unto them; " it 
 may be answered, that by the entering of Satan, that is the " enemy," into 
 him, is meant, the hostile and traitorous intention of selling his Lord and 
 Master. For as by the Holy Ghost is frequently in Scripture understood, 
 the graces and good inclinations given by the Holy Ghost ; so by the 
 of tering of Sal.in may be understood the wicked cogitations and designs 
 enthe adverfaries of Christ and His disciples. For as it is hard to say 
 
 K 
 
290 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 that the devil was entered into Judas, before he had any such hostile design ; 
 so it is impertinent to say he was first Christ's enemy in his heart, and that 
 the devil entered into him afterwards. Therefore the entering of Satan, 
 and his wicked purpose, was one and the same thing. 
 
 But if there be no immaterial spirit or any possession of men's bodies by 
 any spirit corporeal, it may again be asked, why our Saviour and His apostles 
 did not teach the people so ; and in such clear word.', as they might no more 
 doubt thereof. But such questions as these are more curious than necessary 
 for a Christian man's salvation. Men may as well ask why Christ, that 
 could have given to all men faith, piety, and all manner of moral virtues, 
 gave it to some only, and not to all ; and why He left the seaicli of natural 
 causes and sciences to the natural reason and industry of men, and did not 
 reveal it to all, or any man supernaturally ; and many other such questions. 
 Of which nevertheless there may be alleged probable and pious reasons. 
 For as God, when He brought the Israelites into the Land of Promise, did 
 not secure them therein, by subduing all the nations round about them ; but 
 left many of them, as thorns in their sides, to awaken from time to time 
 their piety and industry: so our Saviour, in conducting us toward His 
 heavenly kingdom, did not destroy all the difBculties of natural questions; 
 but left them to exercise our industry and reason ; the scope of His preaching 
 being only to show us this plain and direct way to salvation, namely, the 
 belief of this article, " that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, 
 sent into the world to sacrifice himself for our sins, and at His coming again, 
 gloriously to reign over His elect, and to save them from their enemies 
 eternally." To which the opinion of possession by spirits, or phantasms, is 
 no impediment in the way ; though it be to some an occasion of going out 
 of the way, and to follow their own inventions. If we require of the Scrip- 
 ture an account of all questions which may be raised to trouble us in the 
 performance of God's commands, we may as well complain of Moses for not 
 having set down the time of the creation of such spirits, as well as of the 
 creation of the earth and sea, and of men and beasts. To conclude, I find 
 in Scripture that there be angels and spirits, good and evil ; but not that 
 they are incorporeal, as are the apparitions men see in the dark, or 
 in a dream or vision : which the Latins call spectra, and took for 
 "demons." And I find that there are spirits corporeal, though subtle and 
 invisible ; but not that any man's body was possessed or inhabited by them ; 
 and that the bodies of the saints shall be such, namely, spiritual bodies, as 
 St. Paul calls them. 
 
 Nevertheless, the contrary doctrine, namely, that there be incorporeal 
 spirits, hath hitherto so prevailed in the Church, that the use of exorcism, 
 that is to say, of ejection of devils by conjuration, is thereupon built ; and, 
 though rarely and faintly practised, is not yet totally given over. That 
 there were many demoniacs in the primitive Church, and few madmen, and 
 other such singular diseases ; whereas in these times we hear of, and see 
 many madmen, and few demoniacs, proceeds not from the change of nature, 
 but of names. But how it comes to pass that whereas heretofore the 
 apostles, and after them for a time the pastors of the Church, did cure those 
 singular diseases, which now they are not seen to do ; as likewise, why it is 
 not in the power of every true believer now to do all that the faithful did 
 ihen, that is to say, as we read (Mark xvi. 17, 18), " in Christ's name to cast 
 out devils, to speak with new tongues, to take up serpents, to drink deadly 
 poison without harm-taking, and to cure the sick by the laying on of their 
 hands," and all this without other words, but " in the name of Jesus," 
 is another question. And it is probable that those extraordinary gifts were 
 given to the Church, for no longer a time than men trusted wholly to Christ, 
 and looked for their felicity only in His kingdom to come ; and conse- 
 
OF DEMONOLOG V, ETC. 291 
 
 quently that, when they sought authority and riches, and trusted to their 
 own subtlety for a kingdom of this world, these supernatural gifts of God 
 were again taken from them. 
 
 Another relic of Gehtilism is, the "worship of images," neither instituted 
 by Moses in the 01d,nor by Christ in the New Testament ; nor yet brought in 
 from the Gentiles ; but left amongst them after they had given their names to 
 Christ. Before our Saviour preached. It was the general religion of the Gen- 
 tiles to worship for gods those apparences that remain in the brain from the 
 impression of external bodies upon the organs of their senses, which are com- 
 monly called "ideas," "idols," "phantasms," "conceits," as being represen- 
 tations of those external bodies which cause them, and have nothing in them of 
 reality, no more than there is in the things that seem to stand before us in a 
 dream. And this is the reason why St. Paul says (1 Cor. viii. 4) " we 
 know that an idol is nothing ; " not that he thought that an image of metal, 
 stone, or wood, was nothing ; but that the thing which they honoured or 
 feared in the image, and held for a god, was a mere figment, without place, 
 habitation, motion, or existence, but in tbe motions of the brain. And the 
 worship of these with divine honour, is that which is in the Scripture called 
 idolatry, and rebellion against God. For God being King of the Jews, and' 
 His lieutenant being first Moses, and afterward the high priest ; if the people 
 had been permitted to worship and pray to images, which are representa- 
 tions of their own fancies, they had had no further dependence on the true 
 God, of whom there can be no similitude ; nor on His prime ministers, Moses 
 and the high priests ; but every man had governed himself according to his 
 own appetite, to the utter eversion of the commonwealth, and their own 
 destruction for want of union. And therefore the first law of God was, 
 "They should not take for gods Allows Deos, that is, "the gods of 
 other nations, but that only true God, who vouchsafed to commune with; 
 Moses, and by him to give them laws and directions, for their peace, and for 
 their salvation from their enemies." And the second was, that " they should' 
 not make to themselves any image to worship, of their own invention." 
 For it is the same deposing of a king, to submit to another king, whether 
 he be set up by a neighbour nation or by ourselves. 
 
 The places of Scripture pretended to countenance the setting up of images,' 
 to worship them ; or to set them up at all in the places where God is wor- 
 shipped, are first, two examples ; one of the cherubims over the ark of God ; 
 the other of the brazen serpent. Secondly, some texts whereby we are 
 commanded to worship certain creatures for their relation to God ; as to 
 worship His footstool. And lastly, some other texts, by which is authorized 
 a religious honouring of holy things. But before I examine the force of 
 those places, to prove that which is pretended, I must first explain what is 
 to be understood by " worshipping," and what by " images " and "idols." 
 I have already shown in the xxth chapter of this discourse, that to 
 honour, is to value highly the power of any person : and that such value is 
 measured by our comparing him with others. But because there is nothing 
 to be compared with God in power ; we honour Him not, but dishonour 
 Him by any value less than infinite. And thus honour is properly of its' 
 own nature, secret and internal in the heart. But the inward thoughts of 
 men, which appear outwardly in their words and actions, are ±e signs of : 
 our honouring, and these go by the name of "worship;" in Latin, 
 cultiis. Therefore, to pray to, to swear by, to obey, to be diligent and 
 officious in serving ; in sum, all words and actions that betoken fear to 
 offend, or desire to please, is " worship," whether those words and actions 
 be sincere or feigned ; and because they appear as signs of honouiing, are 
 ordinarily also called "honour." 
 The worship we exhibit to those we esteem to be but men, as to kmgs 
 
 K2 
 
292 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 and men in authority, is " civil worship ; " but the worship we exhibit to 
 that which we think to be God, whatsoever the words, ceremonies, gestures, 
 or other actions be, is " divine worship." To fall prostrate before a king, 
 in him that thinks him but a man, is but civil worship ; and he that putteth 
 off his hat in the chjirch for this cause,,that he thinketh it the house of 
 God, worshippeth with divine worship. They that seek the distinction of 
 divine and civil worship, not in the intention of the worshipper, but in the 
 words c5oi/X«'o and Xarjorfa, deceive themselves. For whereas there be two 
 sorts of servants : that sort, which is of those that are absolutely in the 
 power of their masters, as slaves taken in war, and ^heir issue, whose bodies 
 are not in their own power (their lives depending on the will of their 
 masters, in such manner as to forfeit them upon the least disobedience), and 
 that are bought and sold as beasts, were called Soi/Xoi, that is, properly 
 slaves, and their service tovKda. : the other, which is of those that serve (for 
 hire, or in hope of benefit from their masters) voluntarily, are called 6f[m ; 
 that is, domestic servants, to whose service the masters have no further 
 right than is contained in the covenants made betwixt them. These two 
 kinds of servants have thus much common to them both, that their labour 
 is appointed them by another ; and the word Xdr/jis, is the general name of 
 both, signifying him that worketh for another, whether as a slave or a 
 voluntary servant. So that Xor/jt/a signifieth generally all service : but 
 SouXe/a the service of bondmen only, and the condition of slavery: and 
 both are used in Scripture (to signify our service of God) promiscuously ; 
 Soi/Xefa, because we are God's slaves ; Xarpela, because we serve Him. And 
 in all kinds of service is con tained, not only obedience, but also worship 
 that is, such actions, gestures, and words, as signify " honour." 
 
 An "image," in the most strict signification of the word, is the resem- 
 blance of something visible ; in which sense the fantastical forms, appari 
 tions, or seemings of visible bodies to the sight, are only " images," such as 
 are the show of a man, or other thing in the water, by reflection or refrac- 
 tion ; or of the sun or stars by direct vision in the air ; which are nothing 
 real in the things seen, nor in the place where they seem to be ; nor are 
 their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the object ; but change- 
 able, by the variation of the organs of sight, or by glasses, and are present 
 oftentimes in our imagination and in our dreams, when the object is 
 absent ; or changed into other colours and shapes, as things that depend 
 only upon the fancy. And these are the " images " which are originally 
 and most properly called "ideas " and "idols," and derived from the lan- 
 guage of the Grecians, with whom the word elSu signifieth " to see." 
 They also are called " phantasms," which is in the same language "appari- 
 tions." And from these images it is that one of the faculties of man's 
 nature is called the " imagination." And from hence it is manifest that 
 there neither is, nor can be, any image made of a thing invisible. 
 
 It is also evident that there can be no images of a thing infinite : for all 
 the images and phantasms that are made by the impression of things 
 visible, are figured ; but figure is a quantity every way determined. And 
 therefore there can be no image of God ; nor of the soul of man ; nor of 
 spirits ; but only of bodies visible ; that is, bodies that have light in them- 
 Eelves, or are by such enlightened. 
 
 And whereas a man can fancy shapes he never saw ; making up a figure 
 out of the parts of divers creatures ; as the poets make their centaurs, 
 chimeras, and other monsters never seen : so can he also give matter to those 
 shapes, and make them in wood, clay, or metal. And these are also called 
 images, not for the resemblance of any corporeal thing, but for the resem- 
 blance_ of some fantastical inhabitants of the brain of the maker. But in 
 these idols as they are originally in the brain, and as they are painted. 
 
OF DEMONOLOGY, ETC. 293 
 
 carved, moulded, or moulten in matter, there is a similitude of the one to 
 the other, for wliich the material body made by art may be said to be the 
 image of the fantastical idol made by Nature. 
 
 But in a larger use of the word image, is contained also any representation 
 of one thing by another. So an earthly sovereign may be called ihe image 
 of God ; and an inferior magistrate, the image of an earthly sovereign. 
 And many times in the idolatry of the Gentiles there was little regard to 
 the similitude of their material idol to the idol in their fancy, and yet it was 
 called the image of it. For a stone unhewn has been set up for Neptune, 
 and divers other shapes far different from the shapes they conceived of 
 their gods. And at this day we see many images of the Virgin Mary, and 
 other Saints, unlike one another, and without correspondence to any one 
 man's fancy ; and yet serve well enough for the purpose they were erected 
 for ; which was no more but by the names only, to represent the persons 
 mentioned in the history ; to which every man applieth a mental image of 
 his own making, or none at all. And thus an image in the largest sense, is 
 either the resemblance or the representation of some thing visible ; or both 
 together, as it happeneth for the most part. 
 
 But the name of idol is extended yet further in Scripture, to signify also 
 the sun, or a star, or any other creature, visible or invisible, when they are 
 worshipped for gods. 
 
 Having shown what is "worship," and what an " image ;'' I will now 
 put them together, and examine what that " idolatry " is, which is forbidden 
 in the second commandment, and other places of the Scripture. 
 
 To worship an image, is voluntarily to do those external acts which are 
 signs of honouring either the matter of the image, which is wood, stone, 
 metal, or some other visible creature ; or the phantasm of the brain, for the 
 resemblance, or representation whereof, the matter was formed and figured ; 
 or both together, as one animate body, composed of the matter and the 
 phantasm, as of a body and soul. 
 
 To be uncovered, before a man of power and authority, or before the 
 throne of a prince, or in such other places as he ordaineth to that purpose 
 in his absence, is to worship that man or prince with civil worship ; as 
 being a sign, not of honouring the stool or place, but the person ; and is 
 not idolatry. But if he that doth it, should suppose the soul of the prince 
 to be in the stool, or should present a petition to the stool, it were divine 
 worship, and idolatry. 
 
 To pray to a king for such things as he is able to do for us, though we 
 prostrate ourselves before him, is but civil worship ; because we acknow- 
 ledge no other power in him but human : but voluntarily to pray unto him 
 for fair weather, or for anything which God only can do for us, is divine 
 worship and idolatry. On the other side, if a king compel a man to it by 
 the terror of death, or other great corporal punishment, it is not idolatry: 
 for the worship which the sovereign commandeth to be done unto himself 
 by the terror of his laws, is not a sign that he that obeyeth him does in- 
 wardly honour him as a god, but that he is desirous to save himself from death 
 or from a miserable life ; and that which is not a sign of internal honour, 
 is no worship ; and therefore no idolatry. Neither can it be said, that he that 
 does it, scandalizeth or layeth any stumbling-block before his brother ; be- 
 cause how wise or learned soever he be that worshippeth in that manner, 
 another man cannot from thence argue that he approveth it ; but that he 
 doth it for fear ; and that it is not his act, but the act of his sovereign. 
 
 To worship God, in some peculiar place, or turning a man's face towards 
 an image, or determinate place, is not to worship or honour the place or 
 image ; but to acknowledge it holy, that is to say, to acknowledge the 
 image, or the place to be set apart from common use. For that is the 
 
294 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 meaning ol the word "holy ;" which implies no new quality in the place 
 or image, but only a new relation by appropriation to God ; and therefore 
 is not idolatry ; no more than it was idolatry to worship God before the 
 brazen serpent ; or for the Jews, when they were out of their own country, 
 to turn their faces, when they prayed, towards the temple of Jerusalem ; or 
 for Moses fo put off his shoes when he was before the flaming bush, the 
 ground appertaining to Mount Sinai, which place God had chosen to appear 
 in, and to give His laws to the people of Israel, and was therefore holy 
 ground, not by inherent sanctity, but by separation to God's use ; or for 
 Christians to worship in the churches, which are once solemnly dedicated 
 to God for that purpose, by the authority of the king, or other true repre- 
 sentant of the Cliurch. But to worship God, as inanimating or inhabiting 
 such image or place ; that is to say, in infinite substance in a finite place, 
 is idolatry : for such finite gods are but idols of the brain, nothing real ; 
 and are commonly called in the Scripture by the names of "vanity," and 
 "lies," and "nothing." Also to worship God, not as inanimating or 
 present in the place or image : but to the end to be put in mind of Him, or 
 of some works of His, in case the place or image be dedicated or set up 
 by private authority, and not by the autliority of them that are our sove- 
 reign pastors, is idolatry. For the commandment is, " thou shalt not make 
 to thyself any graven image. " God commanded Moses to set up the brazen 
 serpent ; he did not make it to himself ; it was not therefore against the 
 commandment. But the making of the golden calf by Aaron and the 
 people, as being done without authority from God, was idolatry ; not only 
 because they held it for God, but also because they made it for a religious 
 use, without warrant either from God their sovereign, or from Moses, that 
 was His lieutenant. 
 
 The Gentiles worshipped for gods, Jupiter and others ; that living, were 
 men perhaps that had done great and glorious acts : and for the children 
 of God, divers men and women, supposing them gotten between an im- 
 mortal deity and a mortal man. This was idolatry, because they made 
 them so to themselves, having no authority from God, neither in His 
 eternal law of reason, nor in His positive and revealed will. But though 
 our Saviour was a man, whom we also believe to be God immortal and the 
 Son of God, yet this is no idolatry : because we build not that belief upon 
 our own fancy, or judgment, but upon the word of God revealed in the 
 Scriptures. And for the adoration of the Eucharist, if the words of Christ, 
 "this is my body," signify " that he himself, and the seeming bread in his 
 hand, and not only so, but that all the seeming morsels of bread that have 
 evei- since been, and any time hereafter shall be consecrated by priests, be 
 so many Christ's bodies, and yet all of them but one body ; " then is that 
 no idolatry, because it is authorized by our Saviour : tut if that text does 
 not signify that (for there is no other that can be alleged for it), then, 
 because it is a worship of human institution, it is idolatry. For it is not 
 enough to say, God can transubstantiate the bread into Christ's body : for 
 the Gentiles also held God to be omnipotent, and might upon that ground 
 no less excuse their idolatry, by pretending as well as others a transub- 
 staniiation of their wood and stone into God Almighty. 
 
 Whereas there be, that pretend divine inspiration to be the supernatural 
 entering of the Holy Ghost into a man, and not an acquisition of God's 
 graces, by doctrine and study ; I think they are in a very dangerous 
 dilemma. For if they worship not the man whom they believe to be so 
 inspired, they fall into impiety ; as not adoring God's supernatural pre- 
 sence. And again, if they worship him, they commit idolatry ; for the 
 apostles would never permit themselves to be so worshipped. "Therefore 
 the safest way is to believe, that by the descending of the ddve upon the 
 
OP DEMONOLOGY, ETC. 295 
 
 apostles ; and by Christ's breathing on them, when lie gave them the Holy 
 Ghost ; and by the giving of it by imposition of hands, are understood 
 the signs which God has been pleased to use, or ordain to be used, of His 
 promise to assist those persons in their study to preach His kingdom, and in 
 their conversatipn, that it might not be scandalous, but edifying to others. 
 
 Besides the idolatrous worship of images, there is also a scandalous 
 worship of them ; which is also a sin, but not idolatry. For " idolatry " is 
 to worship by signs of an internal and real honour ; but " scandalous 
 worship," is but seeming worship, and may sometimes be joined with an in- 
 ward and hearty detestation, both of the image and of the fantastical 
 " demon " or idol, to which it is dedicated ; and proceed only from the fear 
 of death, or other grievous punishment ; and is nevertheless a sin in them 
 that so worship, in case they be men whose actions are looked at by others 
 as lights to guide them by ; because following their ways, they cannot but 
 stumble, and fall in the way of religion ; whereas the example of those we 
 regard not, works not on us at all, but leaves us to our own diligence and 
 caution ; and consequently are no causes of our falling. 
 
 If therefore a pastor lawfully called to teach and direct others, or any 
 other of whose knowledge there is a great opinion, do external honour to 
 an idol for fear, unless he make his fear and unwillingness to it as evident 
 as the worship, he scandalizeth his brother, by seeming to approve idolatry. 
 For his brother arguing from the action of his teacher, or of him whose 
 knowledge he esteemeth great, concludes it to be lawful in itself. And this 
 scandal is sin, and a " scandal given." But if one being no pastor, nor of 
 eminent reputation for knowledge in Christian doctrine, do the same, and 
 another follow him, this is no scandal given ; for he had no cause to follow 
 such example, but is a pretence of scandal, which he taketh of himself for 
 an e.\cuse before men. For an unlearned man that is in the power of an 
 idolatrous king or state, if commanded on pain of death to worship before 
 an idol, he detesteth the idol in his heart, he doth well ; though if he had 
 the fortitude to suffer death rather than worship it, he should do better. But 
 if a pastor, who as Christ's messenger has undertaken to teach Christ's 
 doctrine to all nations, should do the same, it were not only a sinful scandal 
 in respect of other Christian men's consciences, but a perfidious forsaking of 
 his charge. 
 
 The sum of that which I have said hitherto concerning the worship ot 
 images is this, that he that worshippeth in an image, or any creature, either 
 the matter thereof, or any fancy of his own, which he thinketh to dwell in 
 it ; or both together ; or believeth that such things hear his prayers, or see 
 his devotions, without ears or eyes, committeth idolatry : and he that 
 counterfeiteth such worship for fear of punishment, if he be a man whose 
 example hath power amongst his brethren, committeth a sin. But he that 
 worshippeth the Creator of the world before such an image, or in such a 
 place as he hath not made, or chosen of himself, but taken from the com- 
 mandment of God's word, as the Jews did in worshipping God before the 
 cherubims, and before the brazen serpent for a time, and in, or towards the 
 Temple of Jerusalem, which was also but for a time, committeth not 
 idolatry. 
 
 Now for the worship of saints and images, and relics, and other things at 
 this day practised in the Church of Rome, I say they are not allowed by the 
 Word of God, nor brought into the Church of Rome from the doctrine there 
 taught ; but partly left in it at the first conversion of the Gentiles ; and 
 afterwards countenanced and confirmed, and augmented by the bishops of 
 Rome. 
 
 As for the proofs alleged out of Scripture, namely, those examples of images 
 appointed by God to be set up ; they were not set up for the people or any 
 
296 OF THE KINGDOM OP DAMNESS. 
 
 man to worship, but that they should worship God himself before them ; 
 as before the cherubims over the ark, and the brazen serpent. For we read 
 not that the priest or any other did worship the cherubims ; but contrarily 
 we read (2 Kings xviii. 4) that Hezekiah brake in pieces the brazen serpent 
 which Moses had set up, because the people burnt incense to it. Besides, 
 those examples are not put for our imitation, that we also should set up 
 images, under pretence of worshipping God before them ; because the words 
 of the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven 
 image," &c., distinguish between the images that God commanded to be set 
 up, and those which we set up to ourselves. And therefore from the cheru- 
 bims or brazen serpent, to the images of man's devising; and from the 
 worship commanded by God, to the will-worship of men, the argument is 
 not good. This also is to be considered, that as Hezekiah brake in pieces 
 the brazen serpent, because the Jews did worship it, to the end they should 
 do so no more ; so also Christian sovereigns ought to break down the images 
 which their subjects have been accustomed to worship, that there be no more 
 occasion of such idolatry. For at this day, the ignorant people, where 
 images are worshipped, do really believe there is a divine power in the 
 images ; and are told by their pastors that some of them have spoken ; 
 and have bled ; and that miracles have been done by them ; which they 
 apprehend as done by the saint, which they think either is the image itself, 
 or in it. The Israelites, when they worshipped the calf, did think they 
 worshipped the God that brought them out of Egypt ; and yet it was 
 idolatry, because they thought the calf either was that God, or had him in 
 his belly. And though some man may think it impossible for people to be 
 so stupid as to think the image to be God, or a saint ; or to worship it in 
 that notion ; yet it is manifest in Scripture to the contrary ; where when the 
 golden calf was made, the people said (Exod. xxxii. 4), ' ' These are thy 
 gods, O Israel ; " and where the images of Laban (Gen. xxxi. 30) are called 
 his gods. And we see daily by experience in all sorts of people, that such 
 men as study nothing but their food and ease, are content to believe any 
 absurdity, rather than to trouble themselves to examine it ; holding their 
 faith as it were by entail unalienable, except by an express and new law. 
 
 But they infer from some other places, that it is lawful to paint angels, 
 and also God himself : as from God's walking in the garden ; from Jacob's 
 seeing God at the top of the ladder ; and from other visions, and dreams. 
 But visions and dreams, whether natural or supernatural, are but phantasms : 
 and he that painteth an image of any of them, rnaketh not an image of God, 
 but of his own phantasm, which is making of an idol. I say not, that to 
 draw a picture after a fancy is a sin ; but when it is drawn, to hold it for a 
 representation of God, is against the second commandment ; and can be of 
 no use but to worship. And the same may be said of the images of angels, 
 and of men dead ; unless as monuments of friends, or of men worthy re- 
 membrance. For such use of an image is not worship of the image ; but 
 a civil honouring of the person, not that is, but that was. But when it is 
 done to the image which we make of a saint, for no other reason but that 
 we think he heareth our prayers, and is pleased with the honour we do him, 
 when dead, and without sense, we attribute to him more than human power ; 
 and therefore it is idolatry. 
 
 Seeing therefore there is no authority, neither in the law of Moses nor 
 m the Gospel, for the religious worship of images, or other representations 
 of God, which men set up to themselves ; or for the worship of the image 
 of any creature in heaven or earth, or under the earth : and whereas Christian 
 kings, who are living representants of God, are not to be worshipped by 
 their subjects, by any act that signifieth a greater esteem of his power than 
 the nature of mortal man is capable of ; it cannot be imagined that the 
 
OF DEMONOLOGY, ETC. 297 
 
 religious \^'Ol•^hip now in use was brought into the Chuicli by inisumier- 
 htanding of tlie Scripture. It resteth therefore, that it was left in it, by nut 
 destroying the images themselves, in the conversion of the Gentiles that 
 worshipped them. 
 
 The cause whereof, was the immoderate esteem and prices set upon the 
 workmanship of them, which made the owners, though converted from 
 worshipping them as they had done rehgiously for demons, to retain them still 
 in their houses, upon pretence of doing it in the honour of Christ, of the Virgin 
 Mary, and of the apostles, and other the pastors of the primitive Church ; 
 as being easy, by giving them new names, to make that an image of the 
 Virgin Mary, and of her Son our Saviour, wliich before perhaps was called 
 the image of Venus and Cupid ; and so of a Jupiter to make a Barnabas, 
 and of Mercury a Paul, and the like. And as worldly ambition creeping by 
 degrees into the pastors, drew them to an endeavour of pleasing the new- 
 made Christians ; and also to a liking of this kind of honour, which they 
 also might hope for after their decease, as well as those that had already 
 gained it : so the worshipping of the images of Christ and His apostles 
 grew more and more idolatrous ; save that somewhat after the time of 
 Constantine, divers emperors and bishops, and general councils, observed 
 and opposed the unlawfulness thereof ; but too late or too weakly. 
 
 The canonizing of saints is another relic of Gentilism : it is neither a 
 misunderstanding of Scripture, nor a new invention of the Roman Church, 
 but a custom as ancient as the commonwealth of Rome itself. The first 
 that ever was canonized at Rome was Romulus, and that upon the narration 
 of Julius Proculus, that swore before the senate he spake with him after his 
 death, and was assured by him he dwelt in heaven, and was there called 
 Quirinus, and would be propitious to the state of their new city : and 
 thereupon the senate gave " public testimony" of his sanctity. Julius 
 Caesar, and other emperors after him, had the like "testimony;" that is, 
 were canonized for saints; for by such testimony is "canonization" now 
 defined ; and is the same with the AiroSiiaaa of the heathen. 
 
 It is also from the Roman heathen that the Popes have received the 
 name and power of Pontifex Maximus. This was the name of him that 
 in the ancient commonwealth of Rome had the supreme authority under the 
 senate and people, of regulating all ceremonies and doctrines concerning 
 their religion ; and when Augustus Caesar changed the state into a monarchy, 
 he took to himself no more but this office, that of tribune of the people, that 
 is to say, the supreme power both in state and religion ; and the succeeding 
 emperors enjoyed the same. But when the emperor Constantine lived, who 
 was the first that professed and authorized Christian religion, it was con- 
 sonant to his profession, to cause religion to be regulated, under his 
 authority, by the Bishop of Rome ; though it do not appear they had so 
 soon the name of Pontifex ; but rather, that the succeeding bishops took it 
 of themselves, to countenance the power they exercised over the bishops of 
 the Roman provinces. For it is not any privilege of St. Peter, but the 
 privilege of the city of Rome, which the emperors were always willing to 
 uphold, that gave them such authority over other bishops ; as may be evi- 
 dently seen by that, that the Bishop of Constantinople, when the emperor 
 made that city the seat of the empire, pretended to be equal to the Bishop 
 of Rome ; though at last, not without contention, the Pope carried it, and 
 became the Pontifex Maximus ; but in right only of the emperor ; and not 
 without the bounds of the empire ; nor anywhere, after the emperor had 
 lost his power in Rome ; though it were the Pope himself that took his 
 power from him. From whence we may by the way observe, that there is 
 no place for the superiority of the Pope over other bishops, except in the 
 territories whereof he is himself the civil sovereign, and where the 
 
298 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 emperor having sovereign power civil, hath expressly chosen the Pope foir 
 the chief pastor under himself, of his Christian subjects. 
 
 The carrying about of images in " procession, is another^ relic of the 
 religion of the Greeks and Romans. For they also carried their idols from 
 place to place, in a kind of chariot, which was peculiarly dedicated to that 
 use, which the Latins called thensa, and vehiculum Deoruni ; and the image 
 was placed in a frame or shrine, which they c&Mei ferculum : and that which 
 they called pompa, is the same that now is named " procession." Accord- 
 ing whereunto, amongst the dirine honours which were given to Julius 
 Csesar by the senate, this was one, that in the pomp, or procession, at the 
 Circssan games, he should have ihensam et ferculum, a sacred chariot and a 
 shrine ; which was as much as to be carried up and down as a god : just 
 as at this day the Popes are carried by Switzers under a canopy. 
 
 To these processions also belonged the bearing of burning torches and 
 candles, before the images of the gods, both amongst the Greeks and 
 Romans. For afterwards the emperors of Rome received the same honour ; 
 as we read of Caligula, that at his reception to the empire, he was carried 
 from Misenura to Rome, in the midst of a throng of people, the ways beset 
 with altars, and beasts for sacrifice, and burning " torches : " and of Cara- 
 calla, that was received into Alexandria with incense, and with casting of 
 flowers, and JSoBoOx'"", that is, with torches ; for SaSoDxoi were they that 
 amongst the Gteeks carried torches lighted in the processions of their gods. 
 And in process of time, the^ devout but ignorant people did many times 
 honour their bishops with the light pomp of wax candles, and the images of 
 our Saviour and the saints, constantly, in the church itself. And thus came 
 in the use qf wax candles ; and was also established by some of the ancient 
 councils. ' 
 
 The heatheiis had also their aqua lustralis, that is to say, " holy water." 
 The Church of Rome imitates them also in their "holy days." They had 
 ihexr bacchanalia ; and we have our " wakes," answering to them; they 
 their saturnalia, and we our " carnivals," and Shrove Tuesday's liberty of 
 servants : they their procession of Priapus ; we our fetching in, erection, 
 and dancing about May-poles ; and dancing is one kind of worship : they 
 had their procession called Ambarvalia ; and we our procession about 
 the fields in the Rogation Week. Nor do I think that these are all the 
 ceremonies that have been left in the Church, from the first conversion of 
 the Gentiles ; but they are all that I can for the present call to mind ; and 
 if a man would well observe that which is delivered in the histories, con- 
 cerning the religious rites of the Greeks and Romans, I doubt not but he 
 might find many more of these old empty bottles of Gentilism, which the 
 doctors of the Roman Church, either by negligence or ambition, have filled 
 up again with the new wine of Christianity, that will not fail in time to 
 break them. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Of Darkness from Vain Philosophy and Fabulous Traditions. 
 
 By " Philosophy " is understood " the knowledge acquired by reasoning, 
 from the manner of the generation of anything, to the properties : or from 
 the properties, to some possible way of generation of the same ; to the end 
 to be able to produce, as far as matter and human force permit, such effects 
 as human life requireth." So the geometrician, from the construction of 
 figures, findeth out many properties thereof ; and from the properties, new 
 
VAIN PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 299 
 
 ways of their construction, by reasoning ; to the end to be able to measure 
 land and water ; and for infinite other uses. So the astrononaer, from the 
 rising, setting, and moving of the sun and stars, in divers parts of the 
 heavens, findeth out the causes of day and niglit, and of the diiferent 
 seasons of the year ; whereby he keepeth an account of time ; and the like 
 of other sciences. 
 
 By which definition it is evident that we are not to account as any part 
 thereof that original knowledge called experience, in which consisteth 
 prudence ; because it is not attained by reasoning, but found as well in 
 brute beasts as in man ; and is but a memory of successions of events in 
 times past, wherein the omission of every little circiunstance altering the 
 effect, frustrateth the expectation of the most prudent : whereas nothing is 
 produced by reasoning aright, but general, eternal, and immutable truth. 
 
 Nor are we therefore to give that name to any false conclusions : for 
 he that reasoneth aright in words he understandeth, can never conclude an 
 error : 
 
 Nor to that which any man knows by supernatural revelation ; because 
 it is not acquired by reasoning : 
 
 Nor that which is gotten by reasoning from the authority of bool;s ; 
 because it is not by reasoning from the cause to the effect, nor from the 
 effect to the cause ; and is not knowledge but faith. 
 
 The faculty of reasoning being consequent to the use of speech, it was 
 not possible but that there should have been some general truths found 
 out by reasoning, as ancient almost as language itself. The savages of 
 America are not without some good moral sentences ; also they have a 
 little arithmetic, to add, and divide in numbers not too great : but they are 
 not, therefore, philosophers. For as there were plants of corn and wine in 
 small quantity dispersed in the fields and woods, before men knew their 
 virtue, or made use of them for their nourishment, or planted them apart 
 in fields and vineyards ; in which time they fed on acorns and drank 
 water ; so also there have been divers true, general, and profitable specu- 
 lations from the beginning ; as being the natural plants of human reason. 
 But they were at first but few in number ; men lived upon gross experience, 
 there was no method ; that is to say, no sowing, nor planting of knowledge 
 by itself, apart from the weeds, and common.plants of error and conjecture. 
 And the cause of it being the want of leisure from procuring the necessities 
 of life, and defending themselves against their neighbours, it was impos- 
 sible, till the erecting of great commonwealths, it should be otherwise. 
 "Leisure "is the mother of "philosophy," and "Commonwealth" the 
 mother of "peace" and ."leisure." Where first were great and flourishing 
 cities, there was first the study of "philosophy." The Gymnosophists of 
 India, the Magi of Persia, and the Priests of Chaldea and Egypt, are 
 counted the most ancient philosophers ; and those countries were the most 
 ancient of kingdoms. " Philosophy " was not risen to the Grecians, and 
 other people of the west, whose " commonwealths, " no greater perhaps 
 than Lucca or Geneva, had never " peace," but when their fears of one 
 another were equal; nor the "leisure" to observe anything but one 
 another. At length, when war had united many of these Grecian lesser 
 cities into fewer and greater, then began " seven men," of several parts of 
 Greece, to get the reputation of being " wise ; " some of them for ' ' moral 
 and " politic " sentences, and others for the learning of the Chaldeans and 
 Egyptians, which was " astronomy " and " geometry." But we hear not 
 yet of any " schools " of "philosophy." 
 
 After the Athenians, by the overthrow of the Persian annies, had gotten 
 the dominion of the sea ; and thereby of all the islands and maritime cities 
 of the Archipelago, as well of Asia as Europe ; and were grown wealthy 5 
 
300 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 they that had no employment, neither at home nor abroad, had little else 
 to employ themselves in, but either (as St. Luke says. Acts xvii. 21) " in 
 telling and hearing news," or in discoursing of "philosophy" publicly 
 to the youth of the city. Every master took some place for that purpose. 
 Plato, in certain public walks called Academia, from one Academus: 
 Aristotle in the walk of the temple of Pan, called Lyceum : others in the 
 Stoa, or covered walk, wherein the merchants' goods were brought to land : 
 others in other places ; where they spent the time of their leisure in teaching 
 or in disputing of their opinions : and some in any place where they could 
 pet the youth of the city together to hear them talk. And this was it which 
 Carneades also did at Rome, when he was ambassador : which caused Cato 
 to advise the senate to dispatch him quickly, for fear of corrupting the 
 manners of the young men, that delighted to hear him speak, as they 
 thought, fine things. 
 
 From this it was that the place where any of them taught and disputed 
 was called schola, which in their tongue signifieth " leisure ; " and their 
 disputations, diatriba, that is to say, "passing of the time." Also the 
 philosophers themselves had the name of their sects, some of them from 
 these their schools : for they that followed Plato's doctrine were called 
 Academics ; the followers of Aristotle Peripatetics, from the walk he taught 
 in ; and those that Zeno taught Stoics, from the Stoa ; as if we should 
 denominate men from Moorfields, from Paul's Church, and from the 
 Exchange, because they meet there often to prate and loiter. 
 
 Nevertheless, men were so much taken with this custom that in time it 
 spread itself over all Europe and the best part of Africa ; so as there were 
 schools publicly erected and maintained, for lectures and disputations, almost 
 in every commonwealth. 
 
 There were also schools, anciently, both before and after the time of our 
 Saviour, amongst the Jews ; but they were schools of their law. For though 
 they were called " synagogues," that is to say, congregations of the people ; 
 yet, inasmuch as the law was every Sabbath-day read, expounded, and dis- 
 puted in them, they differed not in nature, but in name only, from public 
 schools ; and were not only iu Jerusalem, but in every city of the Gentiles 
 where the Jews inhabited. There was such a school at Damascus, where- 
 into Paul entered to persecute. There were others at Antioch, Iconium, and 
 Thessalonica, whereinto he entered to dispute : and such was the synagogue 
 of the Libertines, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, Cilicians, and those of Asia ; 
 that is to say, the school of Libertines, and of Jews that were strangers 
 in Jerusalem ; and of this school they were that disputed (Acts vi. 9) with 
 St. Stephen. 
 
 But what has been the utility of those schools ? What science is there at 
 this day acquired by their reading and disputings? That we have of 
 geometry, which is the mother of all natural science, we are not indebted for 
 it to the schools. Plato, that was the best philosopher of the Greeks, forbad 
 entrance into his school to all that were not already in some measure 
 geometricians. There were many that studied that science to the great 
 advantage of mankind : but there is no mention of their schools ; nor was 
 there any sect of geometricians ; nor did they then pass under the name of 
 philosophers. The natural philosophy of those schools was rather a dream 
 than science, and set forth in senseless and insignificant language ; which 
 cannot be avoided by those that will teach philosophy without having first 
 attained great knowledge in geometry. For Nature worketh by motion ; 
 the ways and degrees whereof cannot be known, without the knowledge of 
 the proportions and properties of lines and figures. Their moral philosophy 
 is but a description of their own passions. For the rule of manners, without 
 civil government, is the law of Nature ; and in it the law civil, that deter- 
 
VAIN PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 301 
 
 mineth what is "honest" and "dishonest," what is "just" and "unjust," 
 and generally what is "good " and " evil." Whereas they make the rules 
 of "good" and "bad" by their own "liking" and "disliking:" by which 
 means, in so great diversity of taste, there is nothing generally agreed on ; 
 but evei-y one doth, as far as he dares, whatsoever seemeth good in his own 
 eyes, to the subversion of commonwealth. Their "logic," which should 
 be the method of reasoning, is nothing else- but captions of words, and 
 inventions how to puzzle such as should go about to pose them. To oon- 
 clude, there is nothing so absurd that the old philosophers, as Cicero saith 
 (who was one of them), have not some of them maintained. And I believe 
 that scarce anything can be more absurdly said in natural philosophy than 
 that which now is called "Aristotle's Metaphysics ; " nor more repugnant 
 to government than much of that he hath said in his "Politics ;" nor more 
 ignorantly than a great part of his " Ethics." 
 
 The school of the Jews was originally a school of the Law of Moses, who 
 commanded (Deut. xxxi. 10) that at the end of every seventh year, at the 
 Feast of the Tabernacles, it should be read to all the people, that they 
 might hear and learn it. Therefore the reading of the Law, which was in use 
 after the Captivity, every Sabbath-day, ought to have had no other end but 
 the acquainting of the people with the Commandments which they were to 
 obey, and to expound unto them the writings of the prophets. But it is 
 manifest, by the many reprehensions of them by our Saviour, that they 
 corrupted the text of the Law with their false commentaries and vain tradi- 
 tions ; and so little understood the prophets, that they did neither acknow- 
 ledge Christ, nor the works He did, of which the prophets prophesied. So 
 that by their lectures and disputations in their synagogues, they turned the 
 doctrine of their Law into a fantastical kind of philosophy, concerning the 
 incomprehensible nature of God and of spirits ; which they compounded 
 of the vain philosophy and theology of the Grecians, mingled with their 
 own lancies, drawn from the obscurer places of the Scripture, and which 
 might most easily be wrested to their purpose ; and from the fabulous tradi- 
 tions of their ancestors. 
 
 That which is now called an University, is a joining together, and an 
 incorporation under one government of many public schools in one and the 
 same town or city. In which, the principal schools were ordained for the 
 three professions, that is to say, of the Roman religion, of the Roman law, 
 and of the art of medicine. And for the study of philosophy, it hath no 
 otherwise place than as a handmaid to the Roman religion : and since the 
 authority of Aristotle is only current there, that study is not properly philo- 
 sophy (the nature whereof dependeth not on authors), but " Aristotelity." 
 And for geometry, till of very late time it had no place at all ; as being 
 subservient to nothing but rigid truth. And if any man, by the ingenuity 
 of his own nature, had attained to any degree of perfection therein, he was 
 commonly thought a magician, and his art diabolical. 
 
 Now to descend to the particular tenets of vain philosophy, derived to the 
 Universities, and thence into the Church, partly from Aristotle, partly from 
 blindness of understanding ; I shall first consider their principles. There 
 is a certain fhilosophia prima, on which all other philosophy ought to 
 depend ; and consisteth, principally, in right limiting of the significations of 
 such appellations or names as are of all others the most universal ; which 
 limitations serve to avoid ambiguity and equivocation in reasoning ; and 
 are commonly called definitions ; such as are the definitions of body, 
 time place, matter, form, essence, subject, substance, accident, power, act, 
 finite infinite, quantity, quality, motion, action, passion, and divers others, 
 necessary to the explaining of a man's conceptions concerning the nature 
 and generation of bodies. The explication, that is, the settling of the 
 
302 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 meaning, of whicli, and the like temis, is commonly in the schools called 
 "metaphysics ;" as being a part of the philosophy of Aristotle, which hath 
 that for title. But it is in another sense ; for there it signifieth as much 
 as "books written or placed after his natural philosophy:" but the 
 schools take them for " books of supernatural philosophy;" for the word 
 "metaphysics" will bear both these senses. And indeed that which is 
 there written is for the most part so far from the possibility of _ being 
 understood, and so repugnant to natural reason, that whosoever thinketh 
 there is anything to be understood by it, must needs think it supernatural. 
 
 From these metaphysics, which are mingled with the Scripture to make 
 school divinity, we are told there be in the world certain essences separated 
 from bodies, which they call "abstract essences," and " substantial forms." 
 For the interpreting of which jargon, there is need of somewhat more than 
 ordinary attention in this place. Also I ask pardon of those that are not 
 used to this kind of discourse, for applying myself to those that are. The 
 world (I mean not the earth only, that denominates the lovers of it 
 " worldly men," but the "universe," that is, the whole mass of all things 
 that are), is corporeal, that is to say, body ; and hath the dimensions of 
 magnitude, namely, length, breadth, and depth : also every part of body 
 is likewise body, and hath the like dimensions ; and consequently every 
 part of the universe is body, and that which is not body is no part of the 
 universe : and because the universe is all, that which is no part of it is 
 "nothing ;" and consequently "nowhere." Nor does it follow from hence 
 that spirits are " nothing :" for they have dimensions, and are therefore 
 really " bodies ;" though that name in common speech be given to such 
 bodies only as are visible, or palpable ; that is, that have some degree of 
 opacity. But for spirits, they call them incorporeal ; which is n. name of 
 more honour, and may therefore with more piety be attributed to God him- 
 self ; in whom we consider not what attribute expreSseth best His nature, 
 which is incomprehensible ; but what best expresseth our desire to honour Him . 
 To know now upon what grounds they say there be " essences abstract," 
 or " substantial forms," we are to consider what those words do properly 
 signify. The use of words is to register to ourselves, and make manifest to 
 others, the thoughts and conceptions of our minds. Of which words, some 
 are the names of the things conceived ; as the names of all sorts of bodies, 
 that work upon the senses and leave an impression in the imagination. 
 Others are the names of the imaginations themselves ; that is to say, of 
 those ideas or mental images we have of all things we see, or remember. 
 And others again are names of names ; or of different sorts of speech : as 
 "universal," "plural," " singular," are the names of names ; and "defini- 
 tion," "affirmation," "negation," "true," "false," "syllogism," "inter- 
 rogation," "piromise," "covenant," are the names of certain forms of 
 speech. Others serve to show the consequence or repugnance of one name 
 to another ; as when one saith, " a man is a body," he intendeth that the 
 name of "body" is necessarily consequent to the name of "man;" as 
 being but several names of the same thing, " man ;" which consequence is 
 signified by coupling them together with the word " is." And as we use 
 the verb "is," so the Latins use their verb "est," and the Greeks their 
 "Eo-Ti through all its declinations. Whether all other nations of the world 
 have in their several languages a word that answereth to it, or not, I cannot 
 tell ; but I am sure they have not need of it. For the placing of two 
 names in order may serve to signify their consequence, if it were the 
 custom (for custom is it that gives words their force), as well as the words 
 "is," or " be," or " are," and the like. 
 
 And if it were so, that there were a language without any verb answerable 
 to " est," or " is," or " be ;" yet the men that used it would be not a jot ihe 
 
VAIN PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 303 
 
 less capable of inferring, concluding, and of all kind of reasoning, than 
 were the Greeks and Latins. But what then would become of these terms 
 of "entity," "essential," " essentiality, " that are derived from it, and of 
 many more that depend on these, applied as most commonly they are ? 
 They are therefore no names of things ; but signs, by which we make known 
 that we conceive the consequence of one name or attribute to another : as 
 when we say, " a man is a living body," we mean not that the "man " is 
 one thing, the "living body" anotlier, and the " is " or "being" a third ; but 
 that the " man " and the " living body " is the same thing ; because the 
 consequence, " if he be a man, he is a living body," is a tme consequence, 
 signified by that word "is." Therefore, "to be a body," "to walk," 
 "10 be speaking," "to live," "to see," and the like infinitives; also 
 "corporeity," "walking," "speaking," "life," "sight," and the like, that 
 signify just the same, are the names of " nothing ;" as I have elsewhere 
 move amply expressed. 
 
 But to what purpose, may some men say, is such subtlety in a work of 
 this nature, where I pretend to nothing but what is necessary to the doctrine 
 of government and obedience ? It is to this pui-pose that men may no longer 
 sufler themselves to be abused by them that by this doctrine of "sepa- 
 rated essences," built on the vain philosophy of Aristotle, would fright them 
 from obeying the laws of their country, with empty names ; as men fright 
 birds from the corn with an empty douljlet, a hat, and a crooked stick. For 
 it is upon this ground that when a man is dead and buried, they say his soul, 
 that is his life, can walk separated from his body, and is seen by night amongst 
 the graves. Upon the same ground they say that the figure, and colour, 
 and taste of a piece of bread has a being there where they say there is no 
 bread. And upon the same ground they say that faith, and wisdom, and other 
 virtues, are sometimes " poured " into a man, sometimes " blown " into 
 him from heaven, as if the virtuous and their virtues could be asunder ; and 
 a great many other things that serve to lessen the dependence of subjects 
 on the sovereign power of their country. For who will endeavour to obey 
 the laws, if he expect obedience to be poured or blown into him ? Or who 
 will not obey a priest that can make God, rather than his sovereign, nay, 
 than God himself? Or who, that is in fear of ghosts, will not bear great 
 respect to those that can make the holy water that drives them from him ? 
 And this shall suffice for an example of the errors which are brought into the 
 Church f 1 ora the " entities " and ' ' essences " of Aristotle, which it may be 
 he knew to be false philosophy, but writ it as a thing consonant to and 
 corroborative of their religion, and fearing the fate of Socrates. 
 
 Being once fallen into this error of " separated essences," they are thereby 
 necessarily involved in many other absurdities that follow it. For seeing 
 they will have these forms to be real, they are obliged to assign them "some 
 place." But because they hold them incorporeal, without all dimension of 
 quantity, and all men know that place is dimension, and not to be filled 
 but by that which is corporeal, they are driven to uphold their credit with a 
 distinction, that they are not indeed anywhere "circumscriptive," but "defi. 
 nitiv^," which terms being mere words, and in tliis occasion insignificant, 
 pass only in Latin, that the vanity of them may be concealed. For the circum- 
 scription of a thing is nothing else but the determination or defining of its 
 place ; and so both the terms of the distinction are the same. And in par- 
 ticular, of the essence of a man, which, they say, is his soul, they affirm it 
 to be all of it in his little finger, and all of it in every other part, how small 
 soever, of his body, and yet no more soul in the whole body than in any one 
 of those parts. Can any man think that God is served with such absur- 
 dities ? And yet all this is necessary to believe to those that will believe 
 the existence of an incorporeal soul separated from the body. 
 
304 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 And wlien they come to give account how an incorporeal substance can 
 be capable of pain, and be tormented in the fire of hell or purgatory, they 
 have nothing at all to answer, but that it cannot be known how fire can 
 burn souls. 
 
 Again, whereas motion is change of place, and incorporeal substances are 
 not capable of place, they are troubled to make it seem possible how a soul 
 can go hence, without the body, to heaven, hell, or purgatory ; and how the 
 ghosts of men, and I may add of their clothes which they appear in, can 
 walk by night in churches, c)iurchyards, and other places of sepulture. To 
 which I know not what they can answer, unless they will say they walk 
 " definitive," not "circumscriptive," or "spiritually," not "temporally," 
 for such egregious distinctions are equally applicable to any difficulty what- 
 soever. 
 
 For the meaning of "eternity," they will not have it to be an endless 
 succession of time, for then they should not be able to render a reason how 
 God's will, and pre-ordaining of things to come, should not be before His 
 prescience of the same, as the efficient cause before the effect, or agent before 
 the action ; nor of many other their bold opinions concerning the incompre- 
 hensible nature of God. But they will teach us that eternity is the standing 
 still of the present time, a nunc-stans, as the schools call it ; which neither 
 they nor any else understand, no more than they would a hic-stans for an 
 infinite greatness of place. 
 
 And whereas men divide a body in their thought, by numbering parts of 
 it and, iu numbering those parts, number also the parts of the place it 
 filled ; it cannot be, but in making many parts, we make also many places 
 of those parts : whereby there cannot be conceived in the mind of any man, 
 more or fewer parts than there are places for : yet they will have us be- 
 lieve that by the almighty power of God, one body may be at one and the 
 same time in many places ; and many bodies at one and the same time in one 
 place ; as if it were an acknowledgment of the Divine Power to say, that 
 which is, is not : or that which has been, has not been. And these are but 
 a small part of the incongruities they are forced to, from their disputing 
 philosophically, instead of admiring and adoring of the divine and incom- 
 prehensible nature ; whose attributes cannot signify what He is, but ought 
 t6 signify our desire to honour Him with the best appellations we can thmk 
 on. But they that venture to reason of His nature from these attributes of 
 honour, losing their understanding in the very first attempt, fall from one in- 
 convenience into another, without end, and without number ; in the same 
 manner, as when a man ignorant of the ceremonies of court, coming into 
 the presence of a greater person than he is used to speak to, and stumbling 
 at his entrance, to save himself from falling, lets slip his cloak ; to recover 
 his cloak, lets fall his hat ; and with one disorder after another, discovers 
 his astonishment and rusticity. 
 
 Then for "physics," that is, the knowledge of the subordinate and 
 secondary causes of natural events ; they render none at all, but empty 
 words. If you desire to know why some kind of bodies sink naturally 
 downwards toward the earth, and others go naturally from it, the schools 
 will tell you out of Aristotle, that the bodies that sink downwards are 
 " heavy," and that this heaviness is it that causes them to descend. But if 
 you ask what they mean by "heaviness," they will define it to be an 
 endeavour to go to the centre of the earth. So that the cause why things 
 sink dovvnward, is an endeavour to be below ; which is as much as to say, 
 that bodies descend, or ascend, because they do. Or they will tell you the 
 centre of the earth is the place of rest, and conservation for heavy things ; 
 and therefore they endeavour to be there : as if stones and metals had 
 a d?sire, or could discern the place they would be at, as man does j or loved 
 
VAIN PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 305 
 
 rest, as man does not ; or that a piece of glass were less safe in the window 
 than falling in;o the street. 
 
 If we would know why the same body seems greater, without adding to 
 It, one time than another, tliey say, when it seems less, it is " condensed ; " 
 when greater, "rarified." What is that "condensed," and "rarified?" 
 Condensed is when there is in the very same matter, less quantity than before, 
 and rarified, when more. As if there could be matter that had not some 
 determined quantity ; when quantity is nothing else but the determina- 
 tion of matter ; that is to say, of body, by which we say, one body is 
 greater or lesser than another, by thus or thus much. Or as if a body 
 were made without any quantity at all, and that afterwards more or less 
 were put into it, according as it is intended the body should be more or 
 less dense. 
 
 For the cause of the soul of man, they say, creatur infundendo, and 
 creando infunditur; that is, "it is created by pouring it in," and "poured 
 in by creation." 
 
 For the cause of sense, an ubiquity of "species;" that is, of the 
 "shows" or "apparitions" of objects ; which when they be apparitions to 
 the eye, is "sight ;" when to the ear, " hearing ; " to the palate, "taste ; " 
 to the nostril, "smelling;" and to the rest of the body, "feeling." 
 
 For cause of the will, to do any particular action, which is called volUio, 
 they assign the faculty, that is to say, the capacity in general, that men 
 have to will sometimes one thing, sometimes another, which is called 
 voluntas; making the "power" the cause of the "act." As if one should 
 assign for cause of the good or evil acts of men, their ability to do them. 
 
 Aid in many occasions they put for cause of natural events their own 
 ignorance ; but disguised in other words : as when they say, fortune is the 
 cause of things contingent ; that is, of things whereof they know no cause : 
 and as when they attribute many effects to " occult qualities ; " that is, 
 qualities not known to them ; and therefore also, as they think, to no man 
 else. And to "sympathy," "antipathy," " antiperistasis," "specifical 
 qualities," and other like terms, which signify neither the agent that pro- 
 duceth them, nor the operation by which they are produced. 
 
 If such "metaphysics" and "physics" as this, be not "vain philo- 
 sophy," there was never any ; nor needed St. Paul to give us warning to 
 avoid it. 
 
 And for their moral and civil philosophy, it hath the same, or greater 
 absurdities. If a man do an action of injustice, that is to say, an action 
 contrary to the law, God they say is the prime cause of the law, and also 
 (he prime cause of that, and all other actions ; but no cause at all of the 
 injustice ; which is the inconformity of the action to the law. This is vain 
 philosophy. A man might as well say, that one man maketh both a straight 
 line and a crooked, and another maketh their incongruity. And such is 
 the philosophy of all men that risolve of their conclusions, before they 
 know their premises ; pretending to comprehend that which is incompre- 
 hensible ; and of attributes of honour to make attributes of nature; as this 
 distinction was made to maintain the doctrine of free-will, that is, of a will 
 of man not subject to the will of God. 
 
 Aristotle, and other heathen philosophers, define good and evil by the 
 appetite of men ; and well enough, as long as we consider them governed 
 evei7 one by his own law ; for in the condition of men that have no other 
 law but their own appetites, there can be no general rule of good and evil 
 actions. But in a commonwealth this measure is false : not the appetite of 
 private men, but the law, which is the will and appetite of the state, is the 
 measure. And yet is this doctrine still practised ; and men judge the good- 
 ness or wickedness of their own, and of other men's actions, and gf th« 
 
3o6 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 actions of the commonwealth itself, by their own passions ; and no man 
 callelli good or evil, but that which is so in his own eyes, without any 
 regard at all to the public laws ; except only monks and friars, that are 
 bound by vow to that simple obedience to their superior, to which every 
 subject ought to think himself bound by the law of Nature to the civil 
 sovereign. And this private measure of good, is a doctrine, not only vain, 
 but also pernicious to the public state. 
 
 It is also vain and false philosophy, to say the work of marri^e is 
 repugnant to chastity, or continence, and by consequence to make them 
 moral vices ; as they do, that pretend chastity, and continence, for the 
 ground of denying mamage to the clergy. For they confess it is no more 
 but a constitution of the Church, that requireth in those holy orders that 
 continually attend the altar and administration of the Eucharist, a continual 
 abstinence from women, under the name of continual chastity, continence, 
 and purity. Therefore they call the lawful use of wives, want of chastity 
 and continence ; and so make marriage a sin, or at least a thing so impure 
 and unclean, as to render a man unfit for the altar. If the law were made 
 because the use of wives is incontinence, and contrary to chastity, then all 
 marriage is vice ; if because it is a thing too impure and unclean, for a 
 man consecrated to God ; much more should other natural, necessary, and 
 daily works which all men do, render men unworthy to be priests, because 
 they are more unclean. 
 
 But the secret foundation of this prohibition of marriage of priests is not 
 likely to have been laid so slightly, as upon such errors in moral philo- 
 sophy ; nor yet upon the preference of single life, to the estate of matri- 
 mony ; which proceeded from the wisdom of St. Paul, who perceived how 
 inconvenient a thing it was for those that in those times of persecution were 
 preachers of the Gospel, and forced to fly from one country to another, to 
 be clogged with the care of wife and children ; but upon the design of the 
 Popes, and priests of after times, to make themselves the clergy, that is to 
 say, sole heirs of the kingdom of God in this world ; to which it was 
 necessary to take from them the use of marriage ; because our Saviour 
 saith, that at the coming of His kingdom the children of God " shall neither 
 marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels in heaven ; " 
 that is to say, spiritual. .Seeing then they had taken on them the name of 
 spiritual, to have allowed themselves, when there was no need, the pro- 
 priety of wives, had been an incongruity. 
 
 From Aristotle's civil philosophy, they have learned to call all manner 
 of commonwealths but the popular (such as was at that time the state of 
 Athens), tyranny. All kings they called tyrants ; and the aristocracy of 
 the thirty governors set up there by the Lacedemonians that subdued 
 them, the thirty tyrants. As also to call the condition of the people under 
 the democracy, ' ' liberty." "A tyrant " originally signified no more simply, 
 but a " monarch." But when afterwards in most part of Greece that kind 
 of government was abolished, the name began to signify, not only the 
 thing it did before, but with it the hatred which the popular states bare 
 towards it. As also the name of king became odious after the deposing of 
 the kings in Rome, as being a thing natural to all men, to conceive some 
 great fault to be signified in any attribute that is given in despite, and to 
 a great enemy. And when the same men shall be displeased wiUi those 
 that have the administration of the democracy, or aristocracy, they are not 
 to seek for disgraceful names to express their anger in ; but call readily the 
 one " anarchy," and the other " oligarchy," or the " tyranny of a few." 
 And that whicli offendeth the people is no other thing, but that they are 
 governed, not as every one of Uiem would himself, but as the public repre- 
 sentant, be it one man, or an assembly of men, thinks fit ; that is, by an 
 
VAIN PHILOSOPHY, ETC. 307 
 
 arbitrary government : for which they give evil names to their superiors ; never 
 knowing, till perhaps a little after a civil war, that without such arbitrary 
 gpvernment such war must be perpetual ; and that it is men and arms, not 
 words and promises, that make the force and power of the laws. 
 
 And therefore this is another error of Aristotle's politics, that in a well- 
 ordered commonwealth, not men should govern, but the laws. What man, 
 that has his natural senses, though he can neither write nor read, does not 
 find himself governed by them he fears, and believes can kill or hurt him 
 when he obeyeth not ? Or that believes the law can hurt him ; that is, 
 words and paper, without the hands and swords of men ? And this is of 
 the number of pernicious errors : for they induce men, as oft as they like 
 not their governors, to adhere to those that call them tyrants, and to think 
 it lawful to raise war against them : and yet they are many times cherished 
 from the pulpit, by the clergy. 
 
 There is another error in their civil philosophy, which they never learned 
 of Aristotle, nor Cicero, nor any other of the heathen, to extend the power 
 of the law, which is the rule of actions only, to the very thoughts and con- 
 sciences of men, by examination, and " inquisition " of what they hold, 
 notwithstanding the conformity of their speech and actions. By which, men 
 are either punished for answering the truth of their thoughts, or constrained 
 to answer an untruth for fear of punishment. It is true, that the civil 
 magistrate, intending to employ a minister in the charge of teaching, may 
 inquire of him, if he be content to preach such and such doctrines ; and in 
 case of refusal, may deny him the employment. But to force him to accuse 
 himself of opinions, when his actions are not by law forbidden, is against 
 the law of Nature ; and especially in them who teach that a man shall be 
 damned to eternal and extreme torments, if he die in a false opinion con- 
 cerning an article of the Christian faith. For who is there, that knowing 
 there is so great danger in an error, whom the natural care of himself com- 
 pelleth not to hazard his soul upon his own judgment, rather than that of 
 any other man that is unconcerned in his damnation ? 
 
 For a private man, without the authority of the commonwealth, that 
 is to say, without permission from the representant thereof, to interpret the 
 law by his own spirit, is another error in the politics ; but not drawn from 
 Aristotle nor from any other of the heathen philosophers. For none of 
 them deny, but that in the power of making laws is comprehended also 
 the power of explaining them when there is need. And are not the Scrip- 
 tures, in all places where they are law, made law by the authority of the 
 commonwealth, and consequently a part of the civil law ? 
 
 Of the same kind it is also, when any but the sovereign restraineth in any 
 man that power which the commonwealth hath not restrained', as they do, 
 that impropriate the preaching of the Gospel to one certain order of men, 
 where the laws have left it free. If the state give me leave to preach, or 
 teach ; that is, if it forbid me not, no man can forbid me. If I fmd myself 
 amongst the idolaters of America, shall I that am a Christian, though not 
 in orders, think it a sin to preach Jesus Christ, till I have received orders 
 from Rome ? Or when I have preached, shall not I answer their doubts, 
 and expound the Scriptures to them; that is, shall I not teach? But for 
 this may some say, as also for administering to them the sacraments, the 
 necessity shall be esteemed for a sufficient mission ; which is true : but this 
 is true also, that for whatsoever a dispensation is due for the necessity, for 
 the same there needs no dispensation, when there is no law that forbids it. 
 Therefore to deny these functions to those to whom the civil sovereign hath 
 not denied them, is a taking away of a lawful liberty, which is contrary to 
 the doctrine of civil government. 
 
 More examples of vain philosophy, brought into religion by the doctors 
 
3o8 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 of school divinity, might be produced ; but other men may if they please 
 observe them of themselves. I shall only add this, that the writings of 
 school divines, are nothing else for the most part but insignificant trains of 
 strange and barbarous words, or words otherwise used, than in the common 
 use of the Latin tongue ; such as would pose Cicero, and Varro, and all the 
 grammarians of ancient Rome. Which if any man would see proved, let 
 him, as I have said once before, see whether he can translate any school 
 divine into any of the modern tongues, as French, English, or any other 
 copious language : for that which cannot in most of these be made intel- 
 ligible, is not intelligible in the Latin. Which insignificancy of langu^e, 
 though I cannot note it for false philosophy ; yet it hath a quality, not only 
 to hide the truth, but also to make men thinlt they have it, and desist from 
 further search. 
 
 Lastly, for the errors brought in from false or uncertain history, what is 
 all the legend of fictitious miracles, in the lives of the saints ; and all the 
 histories of apparitions and ghosts, alleged by the doctors of the Roman 
 Church, to make good their doctrines .of hell and purgatory, the power of 
 exorcism, and other doctrines which have no warrant, neither in reason, nor 
 Scripture ; as also all those traditions whicli they call the unwritten word of 
 God : but old wives' fables ? Whereof, though they find dispersed somewhat 
 in the writings of the ancient fathers ; yet those fathers were men that 
 might too easily believe false reports ; and the producing of their opinions 
 for testimony of the truth of what they believed, hath no other force with 
 them that, according to the counsel of St. John (I Epist. iv. I), examine 
 spirits, than in all things that concern the power of the Roman Church 
 (the abuse whereof either they suspected not, or had benefit by it), to dis- 
 credit their testimony, in respect of too rash belief of reports ; which the 
 most sincere men, without-great knowledge of natural causes, such as the 
 fathers were, are commonly the most subject to. For naturally, the best 
 men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes. Gregory the Pope and 
 St. Bernard have somewhat of apparitions of ghosts, that said they were in 
 purgatory ; and so has our Bede ; but nowhere, I believe, but by report 
 from others. But if they, or any other, relate any such stories of their own 
 knowledge, they shall not thereby confirm the more such vain reports; but 
 discover their own infirmity, or fraud. 
 
 With the introduction of false, we may join also the suppression of true 
 philosophy, by such men, as neither by lawful authority nor sufficient 
 study, are competent judges of the truth. Our own navigations make 
 manifest, and all men learned in human sciences now acknowledge, there 
 are antipodes : and every day it appeareth more and more that years and 
 days are determined by motions of the earth. Nevertheless, men that 
 have in their writingi but supposed such doctrine, as an occasion to lay 
 open the reasons for and against it, have been punished for it by authority 
 ecclesiastical. But what reason is there for it ? Is it because such opinions 
 are contrary to true religion ? That cannot be, if they be true. Let there- 
 fore the truth be first examined by competent judges, or confuted by them 
 that pretend to know the contrary. Is it because they be contrary to the 
 religion established ? Let them be silenced by the laws of those to whom 
 the teachers of them are subject ; that is, by the laws civil. For disobedience 
 may lawfully be punished in them that against the laws teach even true 
 philosophy. Is it because they tend to disorder in government, as counte- 
 nancing rebellion or sedition? Then let them be silenced, and the teachers 
 punished by virtue of his power to whom the care of the public quiet is 
 committed ; which is the authority civil. For whatsoever power ecclesiastics 
 take upon themselves (in any place where they are subject to the slate), in 
 their own tight, though they call it God's right, is but usurpation. 
 
OF THE BENEFIT FROM DARKNESS. 309 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII, 
 
 Of the Benefit that proceedctk from such Darkness, and to whom it 
 accrueth. 
 
 Cicero maketh honourable mention of one of the Cassii, a severe judge 
 amongst the Romans, for a custom he had, in criminal causes, when the 
 testimony of the witnesses was not sufficient, to ask the accusers, cui bono; 
 that is to say, what profit, honour, or other contentment the accused obtained 
 or expected by the fact. For amongst presumptions, there is none that so 
 evidently declareth the author as doth the benefit of the action. By the 
 same rule I intend in this place to examine who they may be that have 
 possessed the people so long in this part of Christendom with these doctrines, 
 contrary to the peaceable societies of mankind. 
 
 And first, to this error, " that the present Chuich, now militant on earth, 
 is the kingdom of Cod " (that is, the kingdom of glory, or the land of 
 promise ; not the kingdom of grace, which is but a promise of the land}, 
 are annexed these worldly benefits ; first, that the pastors and teachers of 
 the Church are entitled thereby, as God's public ministers, to a right of 
 governing the Church ; and consequently, because the Church and common- 
 wealth are the same persons, to be rectors and governors of the common- 
 wealth. By this title it is that the Pope prevailed with the subjects of all 
 Christian princes to believe that to disobey him was to disobey Christ him- 
 self; and in all differences between him and other princes (charmed with 
 the word " power spiritual "), to abandon their lawful sovereigns ; which is 
 in effect an imiversal monarchy over all Christendom. For though they 
 were first invested in the right of being supreme teachers of Christian doc- 
 trine, by and under Christian emperors, within the limits of the Roman 
 empire, as is acknowledged by themselves, by the title of Pontifex 
 Maximus, who was an officer subject to the civil state ; yet, after the 
 empire was divided and dissolved, it was not hard to obtrude upon the 
 people already subjected to them, another title, namely, the right of 
 St. Peter, not only to save entire their pretended power, but also to extend 
 the same over the same Christian provinces, though no more united in the 
 empire of Rome. This benefit of an universal monarchy (considering the 
 desire of men to bear rule), is a sufficient presumption that the Popes that 
 pretended to it, and for a long time enjoyed it, were the authors of the doc- 
 trine by which it was obtained, namely, that the Church now on earth is the 
 kingdom of Christ. For that granted, it must be understood that Christ 
 hath some lieutenant amongst us, by whom we are to be told what are His 
 commandments. 
 
 After that certain Churches had renounced this universal power of the 
 Pope, one would expect in reason that the civil sovereigns in all those 
 Churches should have recovered so much of it, as before they had unad- 
 visedly let it go, was their own right, and in their own hands. And in 
 England it was so in effect ; saving that they, by whom the kings adminis- 
 tered the government of religion by maintaining their employment to be in 
 God's right, seemed to usurp, if not a supremacy, yet an independency on 
 the civil power, and they but seemed to usurp it, inasmuch as they acknow- 
 ledged a right in the king to deprive them of the exercise of their functions 
 at his pleasure. 
 
 But in those places where the presbytery took that office, though many 
 other doctrines of the Church of Rome were forbidden to be taught, yet this 
 doctrine, that the kingdom of Christ is already come, and that it began at 
 
310 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 the resurrection of our Saviour, was still retained. But cui bono ? What 
 profit did they expect from it? The same which the Popes expected : to 
 have a sovereign power over the people. For what is it for men to excom- 
 municate their lawful king, but to keep him from all places of God's public 
 service in his own kingdom, and with force to resist him when he with force 
 endeavoureth to correct them ? Or what is it, without authority from the 
 civil sovereign, to excommunicate any person, but to take from him his 
 lawful liberty, that is, to usurp an unlawful power over their brethren ? 
 The authors therefore of this darkness in religion are the Roman and the 
 presbyterian clergy. 
 
 To this head I refer also all those doctrines that serve them to keep the 
 possession of this spiritual sovereignty after it is gotten. As first, that the 
 "Pope in his public capacity cannot err." For who is there, that believing 
 this to be true, will not readily obey him in whatsoever he commands? 
 
 Secondly, that all other bishops, in what commonwealth soever, have 
 not their right, neither immediately from God, nor mediately from their 
 civil sovereigns, but from the {"ope, is a doctrine by which there comes to 
 be in every Christian commonwealth many potent men (for so are bishops), 
 that have their dependence on the Pope, and owe obedience to him, though 
 he be a foreign prince ; by which means he is able, as he hath done many 
 times, to raise a civil war against the state that submits not itself to be 
 governed accordingly to his pleasure and interest. 
 
 Thirdly, the exemption of these, and of all other priests, and of all 
 monks and friars, from the power of the civil laws. For by this means 
 there is a great part of every commonwealth that enjoy the benefit of the 
 laws, and are protected by the power of the civil state, which nevertheless 
 pay no part of the public expense; nor are liable to the penalties, as other 
 subjects, due to their crimes; and consequently, stand not. in fear of any 
 man but the Pope; and adhere to him only, to uphold his universal 
 monarchy. 
 
 Fourthly, the giving to their priests, which is no more in the New 
 Testament but presbyters, that is, elders, the name of sacerdotes, that 
 is, sacrificers, which was the title of the civil sovereign, and his public 
 ministers, amongst the Jews, whilst God was their king. Also, the 
 making the Lord s Supper a sacrifice, serveth to make the people believe 
 the Pope hath the same power over all Christians that Moses and Aaron 
 had over the Jews ; that is to say, all power, both civil and ecclesiastical, 
 as the high priest then had. 
 
 Fifthly, the teaching that matrimony is a sacrament, giveth to the 
 clergy the judging of the lawfulness of marriages ; and thereby, of what 
 children are legitimate ; and consequently, of the right of succession to 
 hereditary kingdoms. 
 
 Sixthly, the denial of marriage to priests, serveth to assure this power of 
 the Pope over kings. For if a king be a priest he cannot marry, and 
 transmit his kingdom to his posterity ; if he be not a priest, then the Pope 
 pretendeth this authority ecclesiastical over him, and over his people. 
 
 Seventhly, from auricular confession, they obtain for the assurance of 
 their power, better intelligence of the designs of princes and great persons 
 in the civil state, than these can have of the designs of the estate eccle- 
 siastical. 
 
 Eighthly, by the canonization of saints, and declaring who are martyrs, 
 they assure their power, in that they induce simple men into an obstinacy 
 against the laws and commands of their civil sovereigns even to death, if by 
 the Pope's excommunication they be declared heretics or enemies to the 
 Church ; that is, as they interpret it to the Pope. 
 
 Ninthly, they assure the same by the power they ascribe to every priest, 
 
OF THE BENEFIT FROM DARKNESS. 311 
 
 of making Christ ; and by the power of ordaining penance ; and of remit- 
 ting and retaining of sins. 
 
 Tenthly, by the doctrine of purgatory, of justification by external worlcs, 
 and of indulgences, the clergy is enriched. 
 
 Eleventhly, by their demonology, and the use of exorcism, and other 
 things appertaining thereto, they keep, or think they keep, the people more 
 in awe of their power. 
 
 Lastly, the metaphysics, ethics, and politics of Aristotle, the frivolous 
 distinctions, barbarous terms, and obscure language of the schoolmen, taught 
 in the universities, which have been aU erected and regulated by the Pope's 
 authority, serve them to keep these errors from being detected, and to 
 make men mistake the ignis fatuus of vain philosophy for the light of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 To tliese, if they sufficed not, might be added other of their dark doc- 
 trines, the profit whereof redoundeth manifestly to the setting up of an 
 unlawful power over the lawful sovereigns of Christian people ; or for the 
 sustaining of the same, when it is set up ; or to the worldly riches, honow, 
 and authority of those that sustain it. And therefore by the aforesaid rule 
 of cui bono we may justly pronounce for the authors of all this spiritual 
 darkness, the Pope and Roman clergy, and all those besides that endeavour 
 to settle in the minds of men this erroneous doctrine that the Church 
 now on earth is that kingdom of God mentioned in the Old and New 
 Testament. 
 
 But the emperors, and other Christian sovereigns, under whose govern- 
 ment these errors, and the like encroachments of ecclesiastics upon their 
 office, at first crept in, to the disturbance of their possessions and of the 
 tranquillity of their subjects, though they suffered the same for want of fore- 
 sight of the sequel, and of insight into the designs of their teachers, may 
 nevertheless be esteemed accessories to their own and the public damage. 
 For without their authority there could at first no seditious doctrine have 
 been publicly preached. I say they might have hindered the same in the 
 beginning : but when the people were once possessed by those spiritual 
 men there was no human remedy to be applied, that any man could invent. 
 And for the remedies that God should provide, who never faileih in His 
 good lime to destroy all the machinations of men against Ihe truth, we are 
 to attend His good pleasure, that suffereth many times the prosperity of His 
 enemies, together with their ambition, to grow to such a height as the 
 violence thereof openeth the eyes, which the wariness of their, predecessors 
 had before sealed up, and makes men by too much grasping let go all, as 
 Peter's net was broken by the struggling of too great a multitude of fishes ; 
 whereas the impatience of those that strive to resist such encroachment 
 before their subjects' eyes were opened, did but increase the power they 
 resisted. I do not therefore blame the emperor Frederick for holding the 
 stirrup to our countryman Pope Adrian ; for such was the disposition of his 
 subjects then, as if he had not done it, he was not likely to have succeeded 
 in the empire. But I blame those that in the beginning, when their power 
 was entire, by suffering such doctrines to be forgedin the universities of their 
 own dominions, have holden the stirrup to all the succeeding Popes, whilst 
 they mounted into the thrones of all Christian sovereigns, to ride and tire 
 boih them and their people at their pleasure. 
 
 Bat as the inventions of men are woven, so also are they ravelled out ; 
 the way is the same, but the order is inverted. The web begins at the first 
 elements of power, which are wisdom, humility, sincerity, and other virtues 
 of the Apostles, whom the people, converted, obeyed out of reverence, not 
 by obligation. Their consciences were free, and their words and actions 
 subject to none but the civil power. Afterwards the presbyters, as the 
 
312 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 flocks of Christ increased, assembling to consider what they should teach, 
 and thereby obliging themselves to teach nothing against the decrees of 
 their assemblies, made it to be thought the people were thereby obliged to 
 follow their doctrine, and when they refused, refused to keep them com- 
 pany (that was then called excommunication), not as being infidels, but as 
 being disobedient : and this was the first knot upon their liberty. And the 
 number of presbyters increasing, the presbyters of the chief city or province 
 got themselves an authority over the parochial presbyters, and appropiated 
 to themselves the names of bishops : and this was a second knot on Christian 
 liberty. lastly, the Bishop of Rome, in regard of the imperial city, took 
 upon him an authority (partly by the wills of the emperors themselves, and 
 by the title of Pontifex Maximus, and at last when the emperors were 
 grown weak by the privileges of St. Peter), over all other bishops of the 
 empire : which was the third and last knot, and the whole " synthesis " and 
 "construction" of the pontifical power. 
 
 And therefore the " analysis," or " resolution," is by the same way -w but 
 beginneth with the knot that was last tied ; as we may see in the dissolu- 
 tion of the prasterpolitical Church government in England. First, the 
 power of the Popes was dissolved totally by Queen Elizabeth ; and the 
 bishops, who before exercised their functions in right of the Pope, did 
 afterwards exercise the same in right of the Queen and her successors ; 
 though by retaining the phrase of jure divino, they were thought to demand 
 it by immediate right from God : and so was untied the third knot. After 
 this, the presbyterians, lately in England obtained the putting down of 
 episcopacy : and so was the second knot dissolved. And almost at the 
 same time the power was taken also from the presbyterians : and so we are 
 reduced to the independency of the primitive Christians, to follow Paul, or 
 Cephas, or Apollo, every man as he liketh best : which, if it be without 
 contention, and without measuring the doctrine of Christ, by our aflFection 
 to the person of His minister (the fault which the apostle reprehended in 
 the Corinthians), is perhaps the best. First, because there ought to be no 
 power over the consciences of men, but of the Word itself, working faith 
 in every one, not always according to the purpose of them that plant and 
 water, but of God himself, that giveth the increase. And secondly, because 
 it is unreasonable in them, who teach there is such danger in every little 
 error, to require of a man endued with reason of his own, to follow the 
 reason of any other man, or of the most voices of any other men, which is 
 little better than to venture his salvation at cross and pile. Nor ought 
 those teachers to be displeased with this loss of their ancient authority. 
 For there is none should know better than they, that power is preserved by 
 the same virtues by which it is acquired ; that is to say, by wisdom, 
 humility, clearness of doctrine, and sincerity of conversation ; and not by 
 suppression of the natural sciences, and of the morality of natural reason ; 
 nor by obscure language ; nor by arrogating to themselves more knowledge 
 than they make appear ; nor by pious frauds ; nor by such other faults, as 
 in the pastors of God's Church are not only faults, but also scandals, apt 
 to make men stumble one time or other upon the suppression of their 
 authority. 
 
 But after this doctrine, " that the Church now militant is the kingdom 
 of God spoken of in the Old and New Testament," was received in the 
 world ; the ambition, and canvassing for the offices that belong there, 
 unto, and especially for that great office of being Christ's lieutenant, and 
 the pomp of them that obtained therein the principal public charges, 
 became by degrees so evident, that they lost the inward reverence due to 
 the pastoral function : insomuch as the wisest men of them that had any 
 pow«r in th? civil state, needed nothing but the authority of their princes 
 
Ot^ THE BENEFIT FROM DARKNESS. 313 
 
 to deny them any further obedience. For, from the time that the Bishop 
 of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence 
 of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdom of darkness, 
 may be compared not unfitly to the "kingdom of fairies;" that is, to the 
 old fives' fables in England concerning "ghosts" and "spirits," and 
 the feats they play in the night. And if a man consider the original of 
 this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive that the Papacy 
 is no other than the "ghost" of the deceased " Roman empire," sitting 
 crowned upon the grave thereof. For so did the Papacy start up on a 
 sudden out of the ruins of that heathen power. • 
 
 The " language" also which they use, both in the churches and in their 
 public acts, being Latin, which is not commonly used by any nation now 
 in the world, what is it but the " ghost " of the old ' ' Roman language. " 
 
 The "fairies," in what nation soever they converse, have but one 
 universal king, which some poets of ours call king Oberon ; but the Scrip- 
 ture calls Beelzebub, prince of "demons." The " ecclesiastics" likewise, 
 in whose dominions soever they be found, acknowledge but one universal 
 king, the Pope. 
 
 The "ecclesiastics" are "spiritual" men and "ghostly" fathers. The 
 fairies are "spirits" and "ghosts." "Fairies" and "ghosts" inhabit 
 darkness, solitudes, and graves. The "ecclesiastics" walk in obscurity of 
 doctrine, in monasteries, churches, and churchyards. 
 
 The " ecclesiastics" have their cathedral churches, which, in what town 
 soever they be erected, by virtue of holy water and certain charms called 
 exorcisms, have the power to make those tovras cities, that is to say, seats 
 of empire. The "fairies" also have their enchanted castles and certain 
 gigantic ghosts, that domineer over the regions round about them. 
 
 The "fairies" are not be seized on, and brought to answer for the hurt 
 they do. So also the "ecclesiastics" vanish away from the tribunals of 
 civU justice. 
 
 The " ecclesiastics" take from young men the use of reason, by certain 
 charms compounded of metaphysics, and miracles, and traditions, and 
 abused Scripture, whereby they are good for nothing else but to execute 
 what they command them. The "fairies" likewise are said to take 
 young children out of their cradles, and to change them into natural 
 fools, which common people do therefore call " elves," and are apt to 
 mischief. 
 
 In what shop, or operatory, the fairies make their enchantment, the old 
 wives have not determined. But the operatories of the " clergy " are well 
 enough known to be the universities, that received their discipline from 
 authority pontifical. 
 
 When the " fairies" are displeased with anybody, they are said to send 
 their elves to pinch them. The "ecclesiastics," when they are displeased 
 with any civil state, make also their elves, that is, superstitious, enchanted 
 subjects, to pinch their princes, by preaching sedition ; or one prince en- 
 chanted with promises, to pinch another. 
 
 The " fairies " marry not ; but there be amongst them incubi, that have 
 copulation with flesh and blood. The " priests " also marry not. 
 
 The "ecclesiastics " take the cream of the land, by donations of igno- 
 rant men, that stand in awe of them, and by tithes. So also it is in the 
 fable of " fairies," that they enter into the dairies, and feast upon the cream, 
 which they skim from the milk. 
 
 What kind of money is current in the kingdom of " fiiries '' is not re- 
 corded in the story. But the " ecclesiastics " in their receipts accept of 
 the same money that we do ; though when they are to make any payment, 
 it is in canonizations, indulgences, and masses. 
 
314 OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS. 
 
 To this, and such like resemblances between the Papacy and the 
 kingdom of " fairies," may be added this, that as the " fairies " have no 
 existence but in the fancies of ignorant people, rising from the traditions 
 of old wives, or old poets : so the spiritual power of the Pope, without the 
 bounds of his own civil dominion, consisteth only in the fear that seduced 
 people stand in, of their excommunications ; upon hearing of false 
 miracles, false traditions, and false interpretations of the Scripture. 
 
 It was not, therefore, a very difficult matter for Henry VIII. by his 
 exorcism ; nor for Queen Elizabeth by hers, to cast them out. But who 
 knows that this spirit of Rome, now gone out, and walking by missions 
 through the dry places of China, Japan, and the Indies, that yield him 
 little fruit, may not return, or rather an assembly of spirits worse than he, 
 enter, and inhabit this clean swept house, and make the end thereof worse 
 than the beginning ? For it is not the Roman clergy only, that pretends 
 the kingdom of God to be of this world, and thereby to have a power 
 therein, distinct from that of the civil state. And this is all I had a design 
 to say concerning the doctrine of the " Politics. " Which when I have 
 reviewed, I shall willingly expose it to the censure cf my country. 
 
A REVIEW, AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 From the contrariety of some of ihe natural faculties of the mind, one to 
 anotlier, as also of one passion to another, and from their reference to con- 
 versation, there has been an argument taken, to infer an impossibility that 
 any one man should be sufficiently disposed to all sorts of civil duty. The 
 severity of judgment, they say, makes men censorious, and unapt to pardon 
 the errors and infirmities of other men : and on the other side, celerity of 
 fancy, makes the thoughts less steady than is necessary to discern exactly 
 between right and wrong. Again, in all deliberations, and in all pleadings, 
 the faculty of solid reasoning is necessary ; for without it, the resolutions of 
 men are rash, and their sentences unjust : and yet if there be not powerful 
 eloquence, which procureth attention and consent, the effect of reason will 
 be little. But these are contrary faculties, the former being grounded upon 
 principles of truth, the other upon opinions already received, true or false ; 
 and upon the passions and interests of men, which are different and 
 mutable. 
 
 And amongst the passions, " courage " (by which I mean the contempt of 
 woimds, and violent death) inclineth men to private revenges, and some- 
 times to endeavour the unsettling of the public peace ; and " timorousness, " 
 many times disposeth to the desertion of the public defence. Both these, 
 they say, cannot stand together in the same person. 
 
 And to consider the contrariety of men's opinions and manners in general, 
 it is, they say, impossible to entertain a constant civil amity with all those 
 with whom the business of the world constrains us to converse ; which 
 business consisteth almost in nothing else but a perpetual contention for 
 honour, riches, and authority. 
 
 To which I answer, that these are indeed great difficulties, but not im- 
 possibilities ; for by education and discipline, they may be, and are some- 
 ,times reconciled. Judgment and fancy may have place in the same man ; 
 but by turns, as the end which he aimeth at requireth. As the Israelites in 
 Egypt were sometimes fastened to their labour of making bricks, and other 
 times were r.-mging abroad to gather straw ; so also may the judgment 
 sometimes be fixed upon one certain consideration, and the fancy at another 
 time wandering about the world. So also reason and eloquence, though not 
 perhaps in the natural sciences, yet in the moral, may stand verjr well 
 together. For wheresoever there is place for adorning and preferring of 
 error, there is much more place for adorning and preferring of truth, if they 
 have it to adorn. Nor is there any repugnancy between fearing the laws, 
 and not fearing a public enemy ; nor between abstaining from injury, and 
 pardoning it in others. There is therefore no such inconsistence of human 
 nature, with civil duties, as some think. I have known clearness of 
 judgment, and largeness of fancy ; strength of reason, and graceful elocution ; 
 a courage for the war, and a fear for the laws, and all eminently in one. 
 man • and that was my most noble and honoured friend, Mr. Sidney 
 Godolphin ; who hating no man, nor hated of any, was unfortunately slaiii 
 
3i6 A REVIEW. 
 
 in the beginnin>j of the late civil war, in the public quarrel, by an undis- 
 cerned and an undiscerning hand. 
 
 To the Laws of Nature, declared in chapter xv., I would have this 
 added, "that every man is bound by Nature as much as in him lieth, to 
 protect in war the authority by which he is himself protected in time of 
 peace." For he that pretendeth a right of Nature to preserve his own 
 body, cannot pretend a right of Nature to destroy him, by whose strength 
 he is preserved : it is a manifest contradiction df himself. And though 
 this law may be drawn by consequence, from some of those that are there 
 already mentioned ; yet the times require to have it inculcated, and re- 
 membered. 
 
 And because I find by divers English books lately printed, that the civil 
 wars have not yet sufficiently taught men in what point of time it is, that a 
 subject becomes obliged to the conqueror ; nor what is conquest; nor how 
 it comes about, that it obliges men to obey his laws : therefore for further 
 satisfaction of men therein, I say, the point of time, wherein a man be- 
 comes subject to a conqueror, is that point, wherein having liberty to 
 submit to him, he conaaateth, either by express words, or by other suffi- 
 cient sign, to be his subject. When it is that a man hath the liberty to 
 submit, I have showed before in the end of chapter xxi. ; namely, that for 
 him that hath no obligation to his former sovereign but that of an ordinary 
 subject, it is then, when the means of his life are within the guards and gar- 
 risons of the enemy ; for it is then that he hath no longer protection from 
 him, but is protected by the adverse party for his contribution. Seeing 
 therefore such contribution is everywhere, as a thing inevitable, notwith- 
 standing it be an assistance to the enemy, esteemed lawful ; a total submis- 
 .sion, which is but an assistance to the enemy, cannot be esteemed unlawful. 
 Besides, if a man consider that they who submit, assist the enemy but with 
 part cf their estates, whereas they that refuse, assist him with the whole, 
 there is no reason to call their submission, or composition, an assistance ; 
 but rather a detriment to the enemy. But if a man, besides the obligation 
 of a subject, hath taken upon him a new obligation of a soldier, then he 
 hath not the liberty to submit to a new power, as long as the old one keeps 
 the field, and giveth him means of subsistence, either in his armies, or 
 garrisons : for in this case, he cannot complain of want of protection and 
 means to live as a soldier. But when that also fails, a soldier also may 
 seek his protection wheresoever he has most hope to have it ; and may 
 lawfully submit himself to his new master. And so much for the time 
 when he may do it lawfully, if he will. If therefore he do it, he is un- 
 doubtedly bound to be a true subject : for a contract lawfully made, cannot 
 lawfully be broken. 
 
 By this also a man may understand, when it is, that men may be said to 
 be conquered ; and in what the nature of conquest, and the right of a con- 
 queror consisteth : for this submission in itself implieth them all. Conquest, 
 is not the victory itself; but the acquisition, by victory, of a right over the 
 persons of men. He therefore that is slain, is overcome, but not conquered : 
 he that is taken and put into prison or chains, is not conquered, though 
 overcome ; for he is still an enemy, and may save himself if he can : but he 
 that upon promise of obedience hath his life and liberty allowed him, is 
 then conquered, and a subject ; and not before. The Romans used to say 
 that their general had "pacified" such a "province," that is to say, in 
 English, "conquered" it; and that the country was "pacified" by 
 victory, when the people of it had promised emperata facer^e, that is, " to do 
 what the Roman people commanded them :" this was .to be conquered. 
 But this promise may be either express or tacit : express, <.by promise : 
 tacit, by other signs. As for example, a man that hath not been called to 
 
AND CONCLUSION. 317 
 
 make such an express promise, because he is one whose power periiaps is 
 not considerable ; yet if he live under their protection openly, he is under- 
 stood to submit himself to the government : but if he live there secretly, he 
 is hable to anything that may be done to a spy and enemy of the state. I 
 say not he does any injustice ; for acts of open hostility bear not that 
 name ; but that he may be justly put to death. Likewise, if a man, 
 when his country is conquered, be out of it, he is not conquered, nor 
 subject : but if at his return he submit to the govemm^t, he is bound to 
 obey it. So that " conquest," to define it, is the acquiring of the right of 
 sovereignty by victory. Which right is acquired in the people's submission, 
 by which they contract with the victor, promising obedience, for life and 
 liberty. 
 
 In chapter xxix. I have set down for one of the causes of the dissolutions 
 of commonwealths, their imperfect generation, consisting in the want of 
 an absolute and arbitrary legislative power; for want whereof the civil 
 sovereign is fain to handle the sword of justice unconstantly, and as if it 
 were too hot for him to hold. One reason whereof, which I have not there 
 mentioned, is this, that they will all of them justify the war, by which 
 their power was at first gotten, and whereon, as they think, their right 
 dependeth, and not on the possession. As if, for example, the right of the 
 kings of England did depend on the goodness of the cause of William the 
 Conqueror, and upon their lineal and directest descent from him ; by 
 which means there would perhaps be no tie of the subjects' obedience to 
 their sovereign at this day in all the world : wherein, whilst they needlessly 
 think to justify themselves, they justify all the successful rebellions that 
 ambition shall at any time raise against them and their successors. There- 
 fore I put down for one of the most effectual seeds of the death of any 
 state, that the conquerors require not only a submission of men's actions 
 to them for the future, but also an approbation of all their actions past ; 
 when there is scarce a commonwealth in the world, whose beginnings can 
 in conscience be .justified. 
 
 And because the name of tyranny signifieth nothing more nor less than 
 the name of sovereignty, be it in one or many men, saving that they that 
 use the former word are understood to be angry with them they call tyrants ; 
 I think the toleration of a professed hatred of tyranny, is a toleration of 
 hatred to commonwealth in general, and another evil seed, not differing 
 much from the former. For to the justification of the cause of a conqueror 
 the reproach of the cause of the conquered, is for the most part necessary : 
 but neither of them necessary for the obligation of the conquered. And 
 thus much I have thought fit to say upon the review of the first and second 
 part of this discourse. 
 
 In chapter xxxv. I have sufficiently declared out of the Scripture, that in 
 the commonwealth of the Jews, God himself was made the sovereign, by 
 pact with the people ; who were therefore called His/' peculiar people," to 
 distinguish them from the rest of the world, over whom God reigned not by 
 their consent, but by His own power : and that in this kingdom Moses was 
 God's lieutenant on earth ; and that it was he that told them what laws 
 God appointed them to be ruled by. But I have omitted to set down who 
 were the officers appointed to do execution ; especially in capital punish- 
 ments ; not then thinking it a matter of so necessary consideration, as I 
 find it since. We know that generally in all commonwealths, the execution 
 of corporal punishments, was either put upon the guards, or other soldiers 
 of the sovereign power ; or given to those, in whom want of means, con- 
 tempt of honour, and hardness of heart, concurred, to make them sue for 
 such an office. But ampngst the Israelites it was a positive law of God 
 their sovereign, that he that was convicted of a capital crime, should be 
 
3i8 A REVIEW, 1 
 
 stoned to death by the people; and that the witnesses shoul- • -.vrthe first 
 stone, and after the witnesses, then the rest of the people. Tnis was a law 
 that designed who were to be the executioners ; but not that any 6ne should 
 thro\* a stone at him before conviction and sentence, where tlie congrega- 
 tion was judge. The witnesses were nevertheless to be heard before tliey 
 proceeded lo execution, unless the fact were committed in the presence of 
 the congregation itself, or in sight of the lawful judges ; for then there 
 needed no other witnesses but the judges themselves. Nevertheless, this 
 manner of proceeding being not thoroughly understood, hath given occasion 
 to a dangerous opinion, that any man may kill another, in some cases, by a 
 right of zeal ; as if the executions done upon offenders in the kingdom of 
 God in old time, proceeded not from the sovereign command, but from the 
 authority of private zeal : which, if we consider the texts that seem to favour 
 it, is quite contrary. 
 
 First, where the Levites fell upon the people, that had made and wor- 
 shipped the golden calf, and slew three thousand of them ; it was by the 
 commandment of Moses, from the mouth of God ; as is manifest, Exod. 
 xxxii. 27. And when the son of a woman of Israel had blasphemed God, 
 they that heard it, did not kill him, but brought him before Moses, who 
 put him under custody, till God should give sentence against him ; as 
 appears, Levit. xxiv. 11, 12. Again (Numb. xxv. 6, 7), when Phinehas, 
 killed Zimri and Cosbi, it was not by right of private zeal : their crime was 
 committed in the sight of the asiembly ; there needed no witness ; the 
 law was known, and he the heir-apparent to the sovereignty; and, 
 which is the principal point, the lawfulness of his act depended wholly 
 upon a subsequent ratification by Moses, whereof he had no cause 
 to doubt. And tliis presumption of a future ratification, is some- 
 times necessary to the safety of a commonwealth ; as in a sudden 
 rebellion, any man that can suppress it by his own power in the country 
 where it begins, without express law or commission, may lawfully do it, 
 and provide to have it ratified or pardoned, whilst it is in doing, or after it 
 is done. Also (Numb. xxxv. 30), it is expressly said, " Whosoever shall 
 kill the murderer, shall kill him upon the word of witnesses :" but witnesses^ 
 suppose a formal judicature, and coiLsequently condemn that pretence of 
 jus zelotarum. The law of Moses concerning him that enticeth to idolatry,; 
 that is to say, in the kingdom of God to a renouncing of his allegiance' 
 (Deut. xiii. 8,9), forbids to conceal him, and commands the accuser to cause 
 him to be put to death, and to cast the first stone at him ; but not to kill_ 
 him before he be condemned. And (Deut. xvii. 4, 5, 6, 7) the process 
 against idolatry is exactly set down ; for God there speaketh to the people, ■ 
 as judge, and commandeth them, when a man is accused of idol .try, to: 
 inquire diligently of the fact, and finding it true, then to stone him ; but 
 still the hand of the witness throweth the first stone. This is not private 
 zeal, but public condemnation. In like manner, when a father hath a re- 
 bellious son, the law is (Deut. xxi. 18-21), that he shall bring him before 
 the judges of the town, and all the people of the town shall stone him. 
 Lastly, by pretence of these laws it was that St. Stephen was stoned, andi 
 not by pretence of private zeal : for before he was carried away to execution' 
 he had pleaded his cause before the high priest. There is nothing in alt. 
 this, nor in any other part of the Bible, to countenance executions byf 
 private zeal ; which being oftentimes but a conjunction of ignorance andi 
 passion, is against both the justice and peace of a commonwealth. 
 
 In chapter xxxvi. I have said that it is not declared in what manner} 
 God spake supematurally to Moses: nor that He spake not to him some} 
 times by dreams and visions, and by a supernatural voice, as to othen 
 prophe;*!' for the manner how He spake unto him from the mercy-seat, isj 
 
AJSU CONCLUSION, 319 
 
 expressly set down (Numb. vii. 89) in these words: " From that time for- 
 ward, when Moses entered into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak 
 with Gcd, he heard a voice which spake unto him from over the mercy- 
 seat, which is over the ark of the testimony ; from between the cherubims 
 He spake unto him." But it is not declared i:i what consisteth the pre- 
 eminence of the manner of God's speaking to Moses, above that of His 
 speaking to other prophets, as to Samuel and to Abraham, to whom He 
 also spake by a voice (that i.=, by vision), unless the difference consist in the 
 clearness of the vision. For "face to face," and "mouth to mouth," 
 cannot be litei ally understood of the infiniteness and incomprehensibility of 
 the Divine nature. 
 
 And as to the whole doctrine, I see not yet, but the principles of it are 
 true and proper, and the ratiocination solid. For I ground the civil right 
 of sovereigns, and both the duty and liberty of subjects, upon the known 
 natural inclinations of mankind, and upon the articles of the law of Nature ; 
 of which no man, that pretends but reason enough to govern his private 
 family, ought to be ignorant. And for the power ecclesiastical of the same 
 sovereigns, I ground it on such texts as are both evident in themselves and 
 consonant to the scope of the whole Scripture. And thererore am per- 
 suaded, that he that shall read it with a purpose only to be informed, 
 shall be informed by it. But for those that by writing, or public discourse, 
 or by their eminent actions, have already engaged themselves to the main- 
 taining of contrary opinions, they will not be so easily satisfied. For in 
 such cases, it is natural for men, at one and the same time, both to proceed 
 in reading, and to lose their attention, in the search of objections to that they 
 had read before. Of which in a time wherein the interests of men are 
 changed (seeing much of that doctrine which serveth to the establishing of 
 a new government, must needs be contrary to that which conduced to the 
 dissolution of the old), there cannot choose but be very many. 
 
 In that part which treateth of a Christian commonwealth there are some 
 new doctrines which, it may be, in a state where the contrary were already 
 fully determined, were a fault for a subject without leave to divulge, as 
 being an usurpation of the place of a teacher. But in this time, that men 
 call not only for peace, but also for truth, to offer such doctrines as I think 
 true, and that manifestly tend to peace and loyalty, to the consideration of 
 those that are yet in deliberation, is no more but to offer new wine to be put 
 into new casks, that both may be preserved together. And I suppose, that 
 then, when novelty can breed no trouble nor disorder in a state, men are not 
 generally so much inclined to the reverence of antiquity, as to prefer ancient^" 
 errors before new and well-proved truth. -^ 
 
 Th^fe is nothing I distrust more than my elocution, which nevertheless 
 
 . I am confident, excepting the mischances of the press, is not obscure. That 
 1 have neglected the ornament of quoting ancient poets, orators, and 
 philosophers, contrary to the custom of late time, whether I have done well 
 or ill in it, proceedeth from my judgment, grounded on many reasons. For 
 
 [, first, all truth of doctrine dependeth either upon " reason " or upon 
 
 , Scripture, both which give credit to many, but ntver receive it from any 
 
 ^writer. Secondly, the matters in question are not of " fact,"but of " right," 
 wherein Ihere is no place for "witnesses." There is scarce any of those 
 
 .^old writers, that contradicteth not sometimes both himself and others ; 
 
 ,f which makes their testimonies insufficient. Fourthly, such opinions as are 
 taken only upon credit of antiquity, are not intrinsically the judgment of 
 
 ^ those that cite them, but words that pass, like gaping, from mouth to mouth. 
 Fifthly, it is many times with a fraudulent design that men stick their 
 
 - corrupt doctrine with the cloves of other men's wit. Sixthly, I find not that 
 
 - the ancients they cite took it for an ornament, to do the like with those 
 
32(5 A RE VIE l^, AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 that wrote before them. Seventhly, it is an argument of indigestion, when 
 Greek and Latin sentences unchewed come up again, as. they use to do, un- 
 changed. Lastly, though I reverence those men of ancient time, that either 
 have written truth perspicuously, or set us in a better way to.find it o"t our- 
 selves : yet to the antiquity itself I think nothing due. For if we i.ill re- 
 verence the age, the present is the oldest. If the antiquity of the writer, I 
 am not sure, that generally they to whom such honour is given, were more 
 ancient when they wrote than I am that am writing. But if it be well con- 
 sidered, the praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the 
 dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the living. 
 
 To conclude, there is nothing in this whole discourse, nor in that I writ 
 before of the same subject in Latin, as far as I can perceive, contrary either 
 to the Word of God, or to good manners ; or to the disturbance of the 
 public tranquillity. Therefore I think it may be profitably printed, and 
 more profitably taught in the universities, in case they also think so, to 
 whom the judgment of the same belongeth. For seeing the universities are 
 the fountains of civil and moral doctrine, from whence the preachers and 
 the gentry, drawing such water as they find, use to sprinkle the same (both 
 from the pulpit and in their conversation) upon the people, there ought 
 certainly to be great care taken to have it pure, both from the venom o{ 
 heathen politicians, and from the incantation of deceiving spirits. And by 
 that means the most men, knowing their duties, will be the less subject to 
 serve the ambition of a few discontented persons in their purposes against the 
 state, and be the less grieved with the contributions necessary for their peace 
 and defence ; and the governors themselves have the less cause to maintain 
 at the common charge any greater army than is necessary to make good the 
 public liberty against the invasions and encroachments of foreign enemies. 
 
 And thus I have brought to an end my Discourse of Civil and Eccle- 
 siastical Government, occasioned by the disorders of the present time, 
 without partiality, without application, and without other design than 
 to set before men's eyes the mutual relation between protection and 
 obedience ; of which the condition of human nature and the laws divine, 
 both natural and positive, require an inviolable observation. And though 
 in the revolution of states there can be no very good constellation 
 for truths of this nature to be bom under (as having an angry aspect from 
 the dissolvers of an old government, and seeing but the backs of them that 
 erect a new), yet I cannot think it will be condemned at this time either by 
 the public judge of doctrine, or by any that desires the continuance of 
 public peace. And in this hope I return to my interrupted speculation of 
 bodies natural, wherein, if God give me health to finish it, I hope the 
 novelty will as much please, as in the doctrine of this artificial body it useth 
 to offend. For such truth as opposeth no man's profit nor pleasure is to all 
 men welcome. 
 
 PRINTED BV BALLANTVNE, HANSOM AND C0« 
 LONDON AND EDINBUKGK