fault: but when they do, there is inconvenience on all sides; but that which is least, must be chosen.

5. When articles are established without necessity, subscription must be required without tyranny and imperiousness. That is, it must be left to the liberty of the subject, to profess or not to profess that doctrine. The reason is plain. In things, not certain in themselves, no man can give a law to the conscience, because all such laws must clearly be divine commandments: but if the conscience cannot be bound to the article, and the profession serves no necessary end of the commonwealth, then God does not bind, and man cannot: and therefore, to bring evil upon men that do not believe the article, and dare not profess to believe what they do not, is injustice and oppression, it is a law of iniquity; and therefore it is not obligatory to conscience, and no human authority is sufficient for the sanction and imposition. Socrates & was wont to say, "Sacramentum oblatum duabus de causis fide firmandum: vel ut teipsum à turpi suspicione liberes, vel ut amicos ex magnis periculis eripias:" "When you are required to give faith and security by a sacrament, oath, or subscription, there are two cases in which you must not refuse: when thou thyself art suspected, and canst no otherwise purge thyself; and when any of thy relations are in danger, that is, when it is for good to thyself or thy friends." But when there is no necessity of faith, and no public need to be served, the causes that, besides these, enjoin subscription, are fond persuasions, and indiscreet zeal, and usurped empire over consciences; in which cases the ecclesiastic state hath no power to give commandments; and if the civil state does, they oblige to suffering calamity, but not to any other conformity, and then it is a direct state of persecution.

6. Upon the account of this rule it hath been of late inquired, whether it can be lawful for any man to subscribe what he does not believe to be true, giving his hand to public peace, and keeping his conscience for God.

7. But to this the answer is easy, if subscription does signify approbation; for in that case it is hypocrisy, and a denying to confess with the mouth, what we believe with the heart. But if subscription were no more than the office of

the clerk of the signet or of a council, who, in form of law, is to sign all the acts of council, then the consideration were different. For he that is a public officer, and interposes the -signature of the court, not as the account of his own opinion, but as a formality of the court, all the world looks upon it as none of his personal act, but as a solemnity of law, or an attestation of the act of the council. But in subscription to articles of confession, or censure of propositions as heretical, every ecclesiastic that subscribes, does it for himself, and not for the court. "Lubens et ex animo subscripsi:" that is our form in the church of England. "Consentiens subscripsi:" so it was in the ancient councils, as St. Austin reports; 'I consent to the thing, my mind goes along with it.' But, in this case, the whole affair is put to issue in this one particular, which I touched upon before. If the intention of the superior be to require our assent to be testified by subscription, - he that subscribes, does profess his assent; and whatever he thinks himself, it is the intention of the imposer that qualifies the subscription. St. Austin tells of a senator, that, upon his parole, went to treat for his ransom or exchange, and promised to return to them again, in case he could not effect it. But he, going from the army, pretended to have forgot something, and came back presently, and then departed. But telling his story to the Roman senate, and pretending himself quit of his promise, because he went back presently, they drave him out of the senate; because they regarded not what he had in his head, but that which the enemy intended, when they made him swear to return.

8. But the effect of these considerations will be this, that no particular church ought, with rigour, to require subscriptions to articles, which are not evidently true, and necessary to be professed; because in the division of hearts that is in the world, it is certain that some good men may dissent, and then either they shall be afflicted, or be tempted to hypocrisy: of either of which if ecclesiastic laws be guilty, they are not for edification, they are neither just nor pious, and therefore oblige not.

9. But if, for temporal regards, the supreme power dorequire subscription, those temporal regards must be complied with, so that the spiritual interest of souls and truth be se

Epist. 124. ad Alipium.

Ubi supra.

cured. And therefore the next good thing to the not imposing uncertain and unnecessary articles is, that great regard be had, and great ease be done, to wise and peaceable dissenters.

10. And at last, in such cases, let the articles be made with as great latitude of sense as they can; and so that subscriptions be made to the form of words, let the subscribers understand them in what sense they please, which the truth of God will suffer, and the words can be capable of. This is the last remedy, but it is the worst; it hath in it something of craft, but very little of ingenuity; and if it can serve the ends of peace, or of external charity, or of a fantastic concord, yet it cannot serve the ends of truth, and holiness, and Christian simplicity.

CHAP. V.

OF LAWS DOMESTIC: OR THE POWER WHICH FATHERS OF FAMILIES HAVE TO BIND THE CONSCIENCES OF THEIR RELATIVES.

RULE I.

Children are bound to obey the Laws and Commandments of their Parents in all Things domestical, and in all Actions personal relating to the Family, or done within it.

1. THE word of the commandment is כבר which signifies 'to be' or 'to make weighty; but in Piel it signifies 'to honour,' that is, 'Honour your parents,' and do not lightly account of them: but in Leviticus the word is ירא'Fear thy mother and thy father.' They signify the same event of things: for a reverential fear is honour, and they both imply obedience. And there are three great endearments of this, which make it necessary, and make it as absolute as it can be. The one is, that our parents are to us in the place of God: ;

said the Greek comedy; "Suppose your parents to be to you as gods." "Hæc enim paternitas est nobis sacramentum et imago divinæ paternitatis, ut discat cor humanum in eo principio quod videt, quid debeat illi principio à quo est, et quod non videt:" "For the father's power is a sacrament and image of the divine paternity, that a man may learn by the principle of his being which he sees, what he owes to the principle of his being which he sees not1:" and Platom says, There is no image by which we can worship God so well as our fathers, grandfathers, and our mothers.' And therefore it is impiety to dishonour or disobey our parents; and it is piety, when we pay our duty to them. The same word signifies religion to God, which expresses this duty. "Parentes non amare, impietas est; non agnoscere, insania"." For as there are two great crimes which we commit properly against God, impiety or irreligion, and atheism; so there are these two crimes against our parents. He that does not honour and revere them, is impious or irreligious; and he that will not acknowledge them, is atheistical, that is, like the atheists, he denies the principle of his being. And therefore upon that of Virgil,

Huc, Pater O Lenæe, veni

Servius observes, that the heathens called all their gods by the name of 'fathers:' and an injury, done to our father, is said to be done to God, according to that of Menander P;

Ὁ λοιδορῶν τὸν πατέρα, δυσφημεῖ λόγῳ,
Τὴν εἰς τὸ θεῖον δὲ μελετᾷ βλασφημίαν.

"He that reviles and speaks evil of his father, does blaspheme God;" for

Θεὸς μέγιστος τοῖς φρονοῦσιν οἱ γονεῖς Γ.

"God is the great Father of the world;" and therefore he hath, by the greatest religion, immured the father's honour.

Et Jovis imperium et cari præcepta Parentis, Edocet.

Next to God is our duty to our father.

2. The second endearment of our duty, obedience and regard to parents, is 'gratitude;'-which here hath the greatest obligation, and is to this purpose remarked by all laws and by all wise men of the world.

Omnis in Ascanio cari stat cura parentist.

'All their love and all their care is for their dear boy.' The child is a part of his parents, a tender part, but under custody and a guard; and the state of descent and succession from parents to children is called 'suitas' in the law; and there is so much of a father in his child, that if a father and a son be partners in a crime, and refuse to confess it before torments, the law commands the son first to be tormented; Charles II., the emperor, did so; as knowing that the father will confess rather than endure to see his son tormented: and when the father does confess upon the torment of his son, the father is said to be "confessus in tormentis," said Baldus", "he confessed in his torments." And as long as the son is in prison, the father is not accounted free in law: and the father's sins are then punished, when the child is made sick, or unfortunate. So that the government of children is no otherwise than as a man's will governs his own hand and foot; over which, always supposing him to abide within the limits and inclinations of nature, that is, to love and cherish them, and in no sense to hate them, in all other he hath an entire power of command.

3. The third endearment of children's obedience is, 'the power of blessing and cursing, which God hath given to parents, and which himself, by his providence and great economy, will verify. "The father's blessing establisheth the houses of ohildren, but the curse of the mother rooteth out foundations," saith Ben Sirach*. And St. Paul exhorting children to obey their parents, says it is "the first commandment with promise," that is, the first, to which any special promise is annexed, the promise of longevity in the land of promise. "Benedictio merces obedientiæ est,” saith Elias Cretensis: "The father's blessing is the reward of the son's obedience."-But it is observable, that the original word in the fifth commandment is of active signification, "Honour