But they say again that though the principles be right,yet common people are not of capacity enough to be made to understand them.Ishould be glad that the rich and potent subjects of a kingdom,or those 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 anything that setteth up a power to bridle their affections;and learned men,anything that discovereth their errors,and thereby 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 Christian religion,which are above reason;and millions of men be made believe that the same body may 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 consonant 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 sovereignty,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 trusteth in the administration of the Commonwealth;and consequently,it is his duty to cause them so to be instructed;and not only his duty,but his benefit also,and security against the danger 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 prosperity they behold in nations that are otherwise governed than they,to 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 they that go about by disobedience to do no more than reform the Commonwealth shall find they do thereby destroy it;like the foolish daughters of Peleus,in the fable,which desiring to renew the youth of their decrepit 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 shalt not have the Gods of other nations";and in another place concerning 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,nor 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,but such as is conveyed by them from the sovereign authority.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 ecclesiae by preachers,and by publishing the same in the open streets:which may fitly be compared 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 use his name irreverently,whereby he may be brought into contempt with his people,and their obedience,in which the safety of the Commonwealth consisteth,slackened.Which doctrine the third Commandment by resemblance pointeth to.
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 instruct 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 every seventh day a Sabbath,in which the law was read and expounded;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 on 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 see what doctrine they ought to teach their subjects.
