security to marts and banks, and introduces an equality of condition upon all the world, save only when an inequality is necessary, that is, in the relations of government, for the preservation of the common rights of equal titles and possessions, that there be some common term endued with power, who is to be the father of all men by an equal provision, that every man's rights be secured by that fear, which naturally we shall bear to him, who can, and will, punish all unreasonable and unjust violations of property. And concerning this also, the holy Jesus hath added an express precept of paying tribute, and all Cæsar's dues, to Cæsar: in all other particulars, it is necessary, that the instances and minutes of justice be appointed by the laws and customs of the several kingdoms and republics. And therefore it was, that Christianity so well combined with the government of heathen princes; because, whatsoever was naturally just, or declared so by the political power, their religion bound them to observe, making obedience to be a double duty, a duty both of justice and religion: and the societies of Christians growing up from conventicles to assemblies, from assemblies to societies, introduced no change in the government; but by little and little turned the commonwealth into a church, till the world being Christian, and justice also being religion, obedience to princes, observation of laws, honesty in contracts, faithfulness in promises, gratitude to benefactors, simplicity in discourse, and ingenuity in all pretences and transactions, became the characterisms of Christian men, and the word of a Christian the greatest solemnity of stipulation in the world.

32. But concerning the general, I consider, that, in two very great instances, it was remonstrated, that Christianity was the greatest prosecution of natural justice and equality in the whole world. The one was in an election of an apostle into the place of Judas: when there were two equal candidates of the same pretension and capacity, the question was determined by lots, which naturally was the arbitration in questions, whose parts were wholly indifferent; and as it

Singulorum interest, si universi regantur.

Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum,

Dividit ut bona diversis, fugienda petendis.-Hor. 1. i. Sat. 3.

was used in all times, so it is to this day used with us in many places, where, lest there be a disagreement concerning the manner of tithing some creatures, and to prevent unequal arts and unjust practices, they are tithed by lot, and their fortuitous passing through the door of their fold. The other is in the cenobitic life of the first Christians and apostles: they had all things in common, which was that state of nature, in which men lived charitably and without injustice, before the distinction of dominions and private rights. But from this manner of life they were soon driven, by the public necessity and constitution of affairs.

33. Thirdly; whatsoever else is in the Christian law, concerns the natural precept of sobriety, in which there is some variety and some difficulty. In the matter of carnality, the holy Jesus did clearly reduce us to the first institution of marriage in Paradise, allowing no other mixture, but what was first intended in the creation and first sacramental union: and in the instance he so permitted us to the natural law, that he was pleased to mention no instance of forbidden lust, but in general and comprehensive terms of adultery and fornication in the other, which are still more unnatural, as their names are concealed and hidden in shame and secrecy, we are to have no instructor, but the modesty and order of

nature.

34. As an instance of this law of sobriety, Christ superadded the whole doctrine of humility, which Moses did not, and which seemed almost to be extinguished in the world; and it is called by St. Paul, "sapere ad sobrietatem," the reasonableness or wisdom of sobriety. And it is all the reason in the world, that a man should think of himself, but just as he is. He is deceived, that thinks otherwise, and is a fool. And when we consider, that pride makes wars, and causes affronts, and no man loves a proud man, and he loves no man but himself and his flatterers, we shall understand, that the precept of humility is an excellent art, and a happy instrument towards human felicity. And it is no way contradicted by a natural desire of honour; it only appoints just and reasonable ways of obtaining it. We are not forbidden to receive honour; but to seek it for designs of pride and complacency, or to make it rest in our hearts. But when the hand of virtue receives the honour, and transmits it to

God from our own head, the desires of nature are sufficiently satisfied, and nothing of religion contradicted. And it is certain, by all the experience of the world, that in every state and order of men, he, that is most humble in proportion to that state, is (if all things else be symbolical) the most honoured person. For it is very observable, that when God designed man to a good and happy life, as the natural end of his creation, to verify this, God was pleased to give him objects sufficient and apt to satisfy every appetite; I say, to satisfy it naturally, not to satisfy those extravagancies, which might be accidental, and procured by the irregularity either of will or understanding; not to answer him in all that his desires could extend to, but to satisfy the necessity of every appetite; all the desires that God made, not all that man should make. For we see, even in those appetites which are common to men and beasts, all the needs of nature, and all the ends of creation are served, by the taking such proportions of their objects, which are ordinate to their end, and which in man we call temperance, (not as much as they naturally can;) such as are mixtures of sexes merely for production of their kind, eating and drinking for needs and hunger. And yet God permitted our appetites to be able to extend beyond the limits of the mere natural design, that God, by restraining them, and putting the fetters of laws upon them, might turn natural desires into sobriety, and sobriety into religion, they becoming servants of the commandment. And now we must not call all those swellings of appetites natural inclination, nor the satisfaction of such tumours and excrescencies any part of natural felicities: but that, which does just co-operate to those ends, which perfect human nature in order to its proper end. For the appetites of meat, and drink, and pleasures, are but intermedial and instrumental to the end, and are not made for themselves, but first for the end, and then to serve God in the instances of obedience. And just so is the natural desire of honour intended to be a spur to virtue, (for to virtue only it is naturally consequent, or to natural and political superiority :)

• Vina sitim sedant, natis Venus alma creandis

Serviat: hos fines transiliisse nocet.-Virg.

Ο μὲν τὰς ὑπερβολὰς διώκων τῶν ἡδέων, ἡ καθ ̓ ὑπερβολὰς, ἡ διὰ προάιρεσιν, καὶ δι' αὐτὰς, καὶ μηδὲν δι ̓ ἕτερον ἀποβαῖνον, ἀκόλαστος.—Arist. Ethic. l. vii. c. 7. p. 494. ed. Wilk.

but to desire it beyond, or besides, the limit, is the swelling and the disease of the desire. And we can take no rule for its perfect value, but by the strict limits of the natural end, or the superinduced end of religion in positive restraints.

35. According to this discourse we may best understand, that even the severest precepts of the Christian law are very consonant to nature and the first laws of mankind. Such is the precept of self-denial, which is nothing else but a confining the appetites within the limits of nature: for there they are permitted, (except when some greater purpose is to be served, than the present answering the particular desire,) and whatsoever is beyond it, is not in the natural order to felicity; it is no better than an itch, which must be scratched and satisfied, but it is unnatural. But, for martyrdom itself, quitting our goods, losing lands, or any temporal interest, they are now become as reasonable in the present constitution of the world, as taking unpleasant potions, and suffering a member to be cauterized, in sickness or disease. And we see, that death is naturally a less evil than a continual torment, and by some not so resented as a great disgrace; and some persons have chosen it for sanctuary and remedy: and therefore, much rather shall it be accounted prudent and reasonable, and agreeable to the most perfect desires of nature, to exchange a house for a hundred, a friend for à patron, a short affliction for a lasting joy, and a temporal death for an eternal life. For so the question is stated to us by Him, that understands it best. True it is, that the suffering of losses, afflictions, and death, is naturally an evil, and therefore no part of a natural precept, or prime injunction. But when, God having commanded instances of religion, man will not suffer us to obey God, or will not suffer us to live, then the question is, Which is most agreeable to the most perfect and reasonable desires of nature, to obey God, or to obey man; to fear God, or to fear man; to preserve our bodies, or to preserve our souls; to secure a few years of uncertain and troublesome duration, or an eternity of a very glorious condition? Some men, reasonably enough, choose to die for considerations lower than that of a happy eternity; therefore death is not such an evil, but that it may, in some cases, be desired and reasonably chosen, and, in some, be recompensed at the highest rate of a natural value and if

by accident we happen into an estate, in which of necessity one evil or another must be suffered, certainly nothing is more naturally reasonable and eligible than to choose the least evil; and when there are two good things propounded to our choice, both which cannot be possessed, nothing is more certainly the object of a prudent choice than the greater good. And therefore, when once we understand the question of suffering, and self-denial, and martyrdom to this sense, as all Christians do, and all wise men do, and all sects of men do in their several persuasions, it is but remembering, that to live happily after this life is more intended to us by God, and is more perfective of human nature, than to live here with all the prosperity, which this state affords; and it will evidently follow, that when violent men will not let us enter into that condition by the ways of nature and prime intendment, that is, of natural religion, justice, and sobriety, it is made, in that case, and upon that supposition, certainly, naturally, and infallibly reasonable, to secure the perfective and principal design of our felicity, though it be by such instruments, which are as unpleasant to our senses, as are the instruments of our restitution to health; since both one and the other, in the present conjunction and state of affairs, are most proportionable to reason, because they are so to the present necessity; not primarily intended to us by God, but superinduced by evil accidents and the violence of men. And we not only find, that Socrates suffered death in attestation of a God, though he flattered and discoursed himself into the belief of an immortal reward, "de industria consultæ æquanimitatis, non de fiducia compertæ veritatis," as Tertullian says of him; but we also find, that all men, that believed the immortality of the soul firmly and unmovably, made no scruple of exchanging their life for the preservation of virtue, with the interest of their great hope, for honour sometimes, and oftentimes for their country.

36. Thus the holy Jesus perfected and restored the natural law, and drew it into a system of propositions, and made them to become of the family of religion. For God is so zealous to have man attain to the end, to which he first designed him, that those things, which he hath put in the natural order to attain that end, he hath bound fast upon us, not only by the order of things, by which it was that he, that