fon of the King, or the Forfeiture of his Dominion

over us.

3OXFORD, September 9th, 1719.

Q.

Ith bow many Sorts of War may a State be liable to be infested?

Wh

A. Three. The firft is, where the Citizens do fall into a Tumult or Uproar among themselves; and this is term'd a Civil War. The fecond, when the People take up Arms against their lawful Sovereign, and this is call'd a rebellious War. And the third is, when the Kingdom is engag'd in Hoftility against a foreign Power; which latter in ftrict Propriety of Speech ought only to be call'd a War, and lawful, when it is to defend our Country against a common Enemy, or offend them upon a Caufe truly juft. But civil and rebellious Wars are unlawful, and do ufually take their Rife either from the Youth, the Slothfulness, or Inability of a Prince: Therefore it is a Work truly worthy of him to enact fuch wholefome Laws, as may obviate all Disorders in the State, and tranfmit it found and entire to his Succeffor. He ought, in the first Place to exercife his Care in the fettling and establishing of Religion; because any Innovation in that Point, is enough to diforder and fubvert the best of Governments. Alfo when a King is fo very lavish of his Favour to any one particular Perfon, as thereby to diftinguish him (by an extraordinary Degree of Elevation) from the reft of his Minifters, it not only breeds ill Blood in all of them, but also pushes on the Favourite himself to the coveting of more than is confiftent with his Allegiance; and either of thefe is fufficient to enkindle Factions at leaft, if not an open Conflagration. In the Cafe of a Practice to introduce a falle Worship in Oppofition to the found one by Law eftablished, the People are hardly to be reftrain'd from re

bellious

bellious Attempts against the fupreme Authority, as judging the Bond which ties them to the Adoration of the Creator to be infinitely more obligatory, than any Natural, Legal, or fpontaneous Engagement whatso ever. Some contend for an Exception to this particular Cafe only. But certain we are, that in all others, they are as well oblig'd to bear with the Infirmities of an evil Prince, as to love and reverence a good one: For otherwife, the common Order of the Universe, and the harmonious State of Things, would fall into inevitable Confufion. The Civil Wars of France, and the Holy League with the Duke of Guife, the Head of it, that fomented them, took Root from a Pretext of Henry IV. his too much inclining to Calvinism. For although the French, (of all other Nations) do adore their Sove. reigns with the most profound Veneration, yet did they choose to pursue him to the Death, and involve the whole Kingdom in the most execrable of inteftine Wars, rather than admit of any Change of the Religion of their Fore-fathers, though it was never fo much for the better.

Q. What Torments are the Damn'd to fuffer in Hell? A. Infernal Punishments which are to be inflicted on the Wicked after, Death, do not only confift in Lofs and Deprivation of the beatifical Sight of God, but alfo in Pain and exquifite Torments. For this Reason

it is call'd Fire; and the rather call'd fo, becaufe that Hell it felf is ftil'd in the facred Scriptures Teva, a Word deriv'd from others in the Hebrew, which fignify the Valley of Hinnon, a Place wherein the fuperftitious Ifraelites with an Inhumanity that cannot be exprefs'd, did offer up their Children in the Fire to Moloch. Not that infernal Fire is material and corporeal, or that it is a proper, but only metaphorical Fire. A Fire it is, but fuch an one as is prepar'd for the Devil, and for his Angels; which if it were corporeal, or material, fince corporeal and material Beings act not on incorporeal, immaterial Spirits, it could not be imagin'd to be any C 2

other

other than what is more tormenting: Again, as the Worm that never dies is metaphorical and figurative, fo is the Fire that never goes out. Befides, Hell is generally call'd Tartarus, and that for the Coldness of it.. Nor is this a Fancy only of the Poets, nor of fome few Philofophers, 'tis Scripture, that in Hell is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of Teeth and Taslasice est algentem quaffari & contremifcere, to thake and gnash ones Teeth for Cold. But though in Hell there be no proper Fire, yet fince the Torments in it are frequently compar'd to Fire, and with the Addition of Brimstone, it must needs confift in fome thing equally as Dire, as infupportable, as tormenting, and as vexatious as that. Moreover, infernal Torments are not only moft atrocious and fevere, but extended both to Body and Soul. And it is fo great Reason that the Body fhould as well fuffer as the Soul, that 'tis thought not unlikely, that the Soul, as it did not fin but in the Body, fo it doth not fuffer but with it: That 'tis Soul and Body in Conjunction that do make Man, and it is Man; Soul without the Body, not Body without the Soul, but Soul and Body foder'd into one Compofitum that fin, and that which fins muft fuffer. But we drive it not fo far, for the Soul in the State of Union to the Body, as it lives in it, fo it acts by it; the Soul as fo is actus corporis, as is nothing but what relates to the Body, and confequently all its Actions are organical; yet fince it cannot be feparated, and, though not as Anima, yet as Ens can fubfift alone without the Body, it is in that Eftate refponfible, [and juft it fhould] for what it did in the other. Farthermore, give us leave to tell you too, that infernal Punishments are nor defign'd for Example, much less for Caftigation and Amendment of the Punished. Hell is not a Purgatory; as the Tree falls, fo it lies. Judgment is the final and conclufive Act of Difpenfations: No, eternal Punishments are neither Caftigations nor Examples, but meer Revenges, intended to affert divine Honour, to fatisfy Juftice, and in a

word,

word, intended to remove away from God, all that Dishonour and Contempt that hath been put upon him by Sinners. And this alfo was the Notion that the antient Pagans had of the last Judgment, for they held the Juftice of the great Judge Rhadamanthus to be avenging and vindictive. So Ariftotle, Καὶ τοὶ βέλονταίγε τότο λέγειν, καὶ τὸ ΡαδαμάνθυΘ δίκαιον, Είκε πάθοι τα κὶ ἔρεξε, δίκητ ̓ ἐθεία VOLTO. Eth. 1. 5. c. 8. And they feem to call this the Juftice of Rhadamanthus eine nádor. If any be requited in the fame kind, or fuffer for what he has done, he is ferv'd right. And fo Hefiod in his oper. & dier. l. 1.

Τῷ δή τοί Ζεὺς αὐτὸς αγαίες, ἐς 5 τελεντίω Ἔργων ἀντ ̓ ἀδίκων χαλεπίω ἐπέθηκεν ἀμοιβ. With fuch an one God is angry, who in the End will take fevere Vengeance for all Iniquities.

Q. What is the meaning that St. Matthew the Evangelift afcribes this Citation, They took the thirty Pieces of Silver the Price of him that was valued, whom they of the Children of Ifrael did value. xxvii. 9. To Jeremiah the Prophet, when there are no fuch Words in all his Prophecy?

A. Undoubtedly there were more Chapters of the Holy Scriptures wrote, than what are come to our Hands, but at the Destruction of Ferufalem by Titus Vefpafian, they were burnt, or otherwife deftroy'd; and fo among thofe facred Manufcripts, before they were loft, was the abovefaid Prophecy of felling our Bleffed Saviour in fome of Jeremiah's Writings, or elfe St. Matthew, who was living long before this War of the Romans happen'd in Palestine, and had certainly read this Pallage, had never cited him for the Author of it. Thefe Words of Zechariah, one of the minor Prophets, They weighed for my Price thirty Pieces of Silver, ́xi. 12. come nearest to the abovefaid Quotation, but yet not Word by Word. Alfo that Song, which, in the Revelation of St. John the Divine, is call'd the Song of Mofes

Mofes. xv. 3. is not to be found Word for Word in Mo fes's Song, neither in any of the Books of his Pentateuch. The like feeming Contradictions are to be found in divers other Places of Scripture; for God travels to fatisfy our Comfort, not our Curiosity.

Q. Whether the Saints departed have any Knowledge of us ?

A. That pious Men exempted from this Life are touched with a Care of the Living, and do pray to God for them, was an Opinion deeply fixed in the Minds of the Jews; in thofe Times when they were very far from Idolatry, that is, after Efdras, unto this prefent. Abraham (in Jofephus) being ready to flay his Son, hath thefe Words: "God receiving thy Soul by Prayer "and Sacrifice offer'd up, and placing thee near unto

himfelf, thou shalt be a Sollicitor for me, and to "comfort my old Age, for which End I brought thee "6 up, thou fhalt procure for me the Affiftance of God. Moreover 'tis faid, the Ifraelites have three Advocates; God's Goodness, their Ancestors Prayers, and a Life every Day growing better. And concerning their Anceftors 'tis farther faid; "They being freed from the "Body, do exhibit unto the fupreme Lord a naked "and fincere Worship, and do make Prayers for their "Sons and Daughters not in vain, God the Father re"warding them with a gracious Audience,"

This

Opinion hath been much confirm'd by the divine Apocalypfe, fhewing to St. John, and by him to us, that the Martyrs before the Time of the univerfal Refurrection, do reign with CHRIST: for they cannot reign without fome Knowledge of Affairs. And it feems by the precedent Words, this Vision is referred to the Times after Conftantine, wherein the Martyrs were more publickly honour'd than before, not only by the Chriftians, but by God himself, by the Cures daily happening at the Places deftin'd to their Honours. But (fay fome) how doth that Knowledge come unto the Martyrs at fo great a Diftance? This is not hard to be

un