made and unskilful contracts: and from this, resentment and murmur, war and rebellion have arisen, which commonly leave men under much worse condition than their forefathers had subjected them to. Nor is it strange that philosophers, who could imagine no other way for the world to be made, but by a lucky convention and conjunction of atoms, nor could satisfy their own curiosity in any rational conjecture of the structure of man, or from what omnipotency he could be formed or created; I say, it is no wonder, that men so much in the dark as to matter of fact, should conceive by the light of their reason, that government did arise in that method, and by those argumentations, which they could best comprehend capable to produce such a conformity. But that men, who are acquainted with the scriptures, and profess to believe them; who thereby know the whole history of the creation, and have therein the most lively representations of all the excesses and defects of nature; who see the order and discipline and subjection prescribed to mankind from his creation, by Him who created him; and that that discipline and subjection was complied with till the world was grown very numerous; that we, after so clear information of what

was really and in truth done and commanded, should resort to the fancy and supposition of heathen philosophers for the invention of government, is very unreasonable, and hath exposed the peace and quiet of kingdoms, the preservation whereof is the obligation of conscience and religion, to the wild imaginations of men, upon the ungrounded conceptions of the primitive foundation of subjection and obedience, and to their licence to enervate both, by their bold definitions and distinctions.

Because very much of the benefit of Christianity consisted in the liberty it gave mankind from that thraldom which it suffered under the law, and in the manumission and deliverance from those observations and ceremonies, the apostles took not more care in the institution of any part of it, than that men might not be intoxicated with the pleasant taste of that liberty, or imagine that it extended to a lawlessness in their actions, well foreseeing, and being jealous lest their opinion of liberty might degenerate into licentiousness; and therefore they circumscribed it with all possible caution, that they might have the whole benefit to themselves in abstaining from what was grievous and burthensome to them, not the presumption

to disturb other men: "But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak,” saith St. Paul, (1 Cor. viii. 9.) Do not dissemble and give men cause to believe, by accompanying them in what they do, that thou dost intend as they do, and hast the same thoughts with them. "Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh," is an injunction of the same apostle (Gal. v. 13.) How good a title soever you have to liberty, be not exalted by it to anger, and provoke a man, who (though by want of understanding) doth not think himself as free as thou art: no proportion of liberty will permit thee to be uncharitable, much less to apply it to satisfy thy ambition, or any other unlawful affection. Of all kind of affectations of liberty, to which the soul of man lets itself loose, there is none ought to be more carefully watched, and more strictly examined, than that which is so passionately pretended to, and so furiously embraced, liberty of conscience: other liberties which nature inclines and disposes us unto, how unwarrantable soever, may with more excuse, if not with more innocence, be indulged to, than that liberty which seems to

take its rise from conscience: which, in truth, if it be legitimate, is the dictate of God himself; and therefore men ought to tremble in imputing any thing to result from Him, that leads them to the direct breach of any of his commandments, indeed that doth not restrain them from it. It is a very severe limitation by St. James, "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty," (James ii. 12.) That liberty that will not be judged by the law, is an unlawful liberty; and men will find, if they are diligent in seeking, that the law of Christ, which is the judge of Christian liberty, doth oblige all his followers to submit to the laws of their lawful sovereigns which are not directly, and to their knowledge, contradictory to his own. Conscience is so pure a fountain, that no polluted water can be drawn from thence; and therefore St, Peter pronounces a judgment upon those, who, upon their being free, use their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, cover their wicked designs under the liberty of conscience, and so make God accessary to the iniquity he abhors.

XV. OF INDUSTRY.

Montpellier, 1670.

INDUSTRY is the cordial that nature hath provided to cure all its own infirmities and diseases, and to supply all its defects; the weapon to preserve and defend us against all the strokes and assaults of fortune; it is that only that conducts us through any noble enterprise to a noble end: what we obtain without it is by chance; what we obtain with it is by virtue. It is very great pity that so powerful an instrument should be put into the hands of wicked men, who thereby gain such infinite advantages; yet it cannot be denied but that it is a virtue which ill men make use of to very ill purposes. It was the first foundation of Jeroboam's greatness: "And Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious, he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph," (1 Kings xi. 28.) by which he got credit and authority to deprive his son of the greatest part of his dominions. There is no art or science that is too difficult for industry to attain to; it is the gift of tongues, and makes a man understood and valued in all countries, and by all nations;