great Power and Trust in so few hands was look'd upon as a great Obligation to those Lords and a great Security to that King so long as their Interests stood united in their new Conquest yet in the next Age when the heat of that Action was over their Interests divided and the Obligation forgotten it proved to the succeeding Kings so great a Curb and Restraint to Sovereignty that nothing fell more intimately into their Care than how to retrench as much as they durst the Power of that Nobility which they began to suspect and was like in time to mate even Monarchy it self Though others foresaw the mischief in time yet none attempted the Remedy untill King John who no sooner began to reign in his own Right for by the way he practis'd a little in his Brother's time and by that Experience found Mat. Paris his Words true of the Barons viz. Quot Domini tot Tyranni But he bethought himself to frame his Counsel of such a Constitution as he might have Credit and Influence upon it To be short he was the first that durst restrain the tumultuary access of the Barons to Council he was the first that would admit of none but such as he should summon and would summon none but such as he thought fitting and besides he would send out Summons to several of the Commons or lesser Tenants mixing them with the Nobles and engaging them thereby to his Interest and whereas before the Council consisted of the Nobility and Clergy he erected a third Estate a Body of the Commons or lesser Tenants which might in some measure equal the rest and be faithful to him All which appears in the Clause Rolls and Patent Rolls of the sixth Year of this King and in vain before that time shall any Man seek either for Summons or Advice of the Commons in any of these great Councils King John having put this Cheque upon the Councils considers next how to ballance the unequal power of the unruly Barons and first he tampers with the Bishops and Clergy sain he would have drawn them into his Party at least to his Dependency but that Tryal cost him dear In the next place therefore that he might create new Dependances and new Strength to himself he becomes a great Patron and Founder or at least Benefactor to many considerable Corporations as Newcastle Yarmouth Lynn and others insomuch that he is taken notice of by Speed and other of our Chroniclers and stiled particularly the Patron of Corporations Thus you see not only when but for what Reason the Institution of the House of Commons was first thought upon and indeed according to their old or first Constitution their Attendance in Parliament or as we say their serving in Parliament was look'd upon rather as an easier Service due to the King than otherwise as a Priviledge granted to the People as may be seen not only in the Case of the Burgesses of St. Albans in temp Ed. 2. recited by the Worthy Dr. Brady against Petit but also by many other good Authorities too long for this place But begging your Pardon for this long Story I now proceed to the second Parenthesis in which he makes no Scruple to accuse his present Majejesty and his late Sacred Father of breaking the Law in adjourning proroguing and dissolving Parliaments Indeed Cousin I know nothing that reflects more truly upon the Constitution of our Government than that it suffers such pestilent seditious Men as our Author seems to be to live under it For nothing sure is more evident in the whole or any part of the Law whether Statute common or customary than that the Kings of England ever since the first Parliament that ever was call'd have had and exercis'd the same Power in adjourning proroguing and dissolving them as his present Majesty or his Father of Blessed Memory ever did And that you may have Plato's own Authority against himself I must anticipate so much of his Discourse as to inform you That in p. 105. you will find these very Words That which is undoubtedly the King 's Right or Prerogative is to Call and Dissolve Parliaments Nay more so great was the Authority and Prerogative of our Kings over the House of Commons according to their old Constitution That they have in their Writs of Summons named and appointed the particular Persons all over England who were to be returned to their Parliaments sometimes have order'd that only one Knight for the Shire and one Burgess for a Corporation should be sent to their Parliaments and those also named to the Sheriffs and sometimes more as may be seen by the very Writs of Edw. 2. and Edw. 3. fully recited by the aforesaid Dr. Brady from p. 243. to p. 252. Besides Sir what is more reasonable and equitable than that our Kings should enjoy the Power of Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving that their Council or Parliament when and as often as they please since our Kings alone in Exclusion to all other mortal Power in England whatsoever enjoy â—olely the Prerogative of Calling or Assembling these their Parliaments when and where they alone shall think convenient Mer. I confess we generally say That it is a great Weakness in a cunning Man to raise a Spirit which afterwards he cannot lay and that in such case the Spirit tears him in pieces first who rais'd him And I think we have had the Misfortune to see somewhat very tragical of this kind in the beginning of our late Troubles if it were not possibly the great Cause of his late Majesty's fatal Catastrophe But truly excepting that case I never heard the King's Authority in proroguing or dissolving Parliaments question'd before Trav. Well Sir go forward to the twenty fifth Page for all between is nothing but quacking and ridiculous Complements or Matter as little worth our notice Mer. He tells us there that it remains undiscovered how the first Regulation of Mankind began that Necessity made the first Government that every Man by the Law of Nature had like Beasts in a Pasture Right to every thing That every Individual if he were stronger might seise whatever any other had possessed himself of before Trav. Hold a little Sir that we may not have too much Work upon our Hands at once I think he said before at Page 22. That he would not take upon him so much as to conjecture how and when Government began in the World c. This Cousin I cannot pass by because it seems to be the only piece of Modesty which I observe in his whole Treatise And I should commend him for it much but that I have great reason to suspect that he pretends Ignorance only to cover his Knavery and thereby leave room to introduce several other most false and pernicious Principles which we shall endeavour to refute First therefore I shall take the Liberty not only to conjecture but to tell him plainly when and where Covernment began and how also it continued
Soveraign power in the house of Lords either conjunctim or divisim joyntly or separately without the King therefore the Soveraign right of power can be no where but in the King right of council is in the Lords and Commons in Parliament duly assembled but right of command is in the King For he both calls the Parliament and dissolves it One Soveraign power cannot dissolve another Soveraign power could they be supposed together except by force But the Kings of England have ever called and dissolved Parliaments not by force but by right of power and command which belongs to them by inherent birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession A Bill which shall have regularly past both Houses and brought even to the Royal assent is no Act nor hath it any manner of force as such without the Kings will Le Roy le veult doth solely and necessarily transform a Bill into a Statute and is the essential constituent part of it His Will doth alone give life and being to that which is no more than a dead insignificant letter without it Nay though a Bill should pass both Houses with the unanimous consent and approbation of every individual Member yet the King may refuse it and it is indisputably the right of our Kings so to do if they shall so think sitting which prove evidently amongst other things that the Soveraign Power is solely in our Kings Merch. But Sir Plato Red. insinuates very strongly p. 123. that It is a violation of right and infringment of the Kings Coronation Oath to frustrate the counsels of a Parliament by his negative voice and that in his opinion the King is bound confirmare consuetudines or pass such laws as the people shall choose Trav. The Delphick Oracle did never impose Laws more peremptorily to the Greeks than Plato Red. would arrogantly obtrude his private opinions upon us for notwithstanding all the Laws are against him yet he alone would pretend to devest the King of this his undoubted Prerogative But Sir there is a difference between new modelling a Government and maintaining it according to its ancient institution If Plato designs the first he may as well pretend it is inconvenient that the Imperial Crown of England should be Hereditary and Successive and endeavour to make it Elective for the right of a negative voice in Parliament is as certainly the Prerogative of the Kings of England as their right of Inheritance or Succession is But having no design to dâ—…te so much at this time what â—lteration might be convenient for us as â—o maintain what the Kings Right â—â— and ever hath been according to the â—â—cient as well as present Consâ—…tion of the Government I must 〈…〉 do averr That the King enjoyinâ— â—â—reditarily and undeniably this Nâ—…tive voice in Parliament hath himself the Supreme power of England And this the English Gentleman and his Doctor seem to acknowledge p. 105. Besides If the Soveraign power of England were not solely in the King then when there is no Parliament there could be no Soveraign power in England which is ridiculous and absurd For there is no Free and independent Kingdom or Commonwealth upon earth in which there is not at all times a Soveraign power in being If the Soveraign power ceaseth for a moment the power which remains becomes dependent and at the same instant a higher power must appear But the Imperial Crown of England depends upon none but God Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum Deo says Bracton an ancient and a Learned Author and again Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum The King has no Superiour but God Or as it was express'd under H. 4. The Regality of the Crown of England is immediately subject to God and to none other Mer. But since the King can neither make any Laws nor levy any Taxes without the consent of both Houses it shews sure that at least some of the Soveraign power resides in them Trav. I perceive Cousin you have forgot your Grotius for he tells you that you must distinguish between the Empire and the manner of holding the Empire or the Jus ab usu Juris Aliud enim est Imperium aliud habendi modus So that although the Kings of England do generally promise or swear not to alter the Government nor to make Laws or levy impositions but according to the ancient Constitutions of the Kingdom yet nevertheless this takes not from him his Soveraign right of power for that he hath in him by Birthright and Inheritance and according to the Original Institution of the Kingdom and which is antecedent and Superiour also to any Oaths or Obligations I 'll give you Grotius his own words as you will find them l. 1. c. 3. s 16. Non definit summum esse Imperium etiamsi is qui imperaturm est promittat aliqua subditis etiam talia quae ad imperandi rationem pertineant But he confesseth indeed that such a Constitution is a little limitation to the Supreme power Fatendum tamen arctius quodammodo reddi Imperium But it doth not follow from thence that there is any authority Superiour to his own Non inde tamen sequitur ita promittenti Superiorem dari aliquem And he gives you the example of the Persian Monarchs who though they were as absolute as any Kings could be yet when they enter'd upon the Government they sware to observe certain Laws which they could not alter Apud Persas Rex summo cum Imperio erat tamen jurabat cum regnum adiret leges certa quadam forma latas mutare illi nefas erat So also that the Egyptian Kings were bound to the observance of several Customs and Constitutions Aegyptiorum Reges quos tameâ— ut alios Reges Orientis summo imperio usos non est dubium ad multarum rerum observationem oblig abantur Mer. Very well Sir but pray why may not the Soveraign power remain still in the people especially if all be true which our Author boldly affirms p. 119. viz. That our Prince hath no authority of his own but what was first entrusted in him by the Government of which he is head Trav. Here Plato plays the Villain egregiously is a Traitor incognito and carries Treason in a dark lanthorn which he thinks to discover or conceal according to the success of Rebellion which he evidently promotes But we shall unmask this Republican Faux And first our King whom he calls Prince not understanding it may be the difference between Regnum and Principaâ—us hath no authority saith he but what was first intrusted by the Government Here Government is a word of an amphibious nature and can as well subsist under a Monarchy as a Commonwealth For if Rebellion doth not prosper then Government in this place signifies the Law of the Land and indeed the King's authority over us is establish'd by the Law that is to say the consent and acknowledgment of the People in due form That
the King hath inherently antecedently and by Birth-right a Soveraign authority over all his people and this is confirm'd to him both by Statute Common Law and Custom according to that of 19. H. 6. 62. The Law is the inheritance of the King and people by which they are rul'd King and people But if the Commonwealths men gain their point if the Association and its brat bloody murder had taken its damnable effect then Government had most plainly signified the People and that is truly our Authors meaning for the words which immediately follow are these Nor is it to be imagin'd that they would give him more power than what was necessary to govern them What can be the antecedent to They and Them but the word Subjects which precedes in the beginning of the Sentence This is the true Presbyterian or Phanatick way of speaking their most mischievous Treasons which like a Bizzare with a little turn of the hand represents ether the Pope or the Devil But since we are so plainly assured of his meaning I 'll take the liberty for once to put it plainly into words and I think it will then run thus That our King having neither by birthright nor by a long undoubted Succession of above six hundred years any Authority of his own but only that which the people have intrusted in him for they would give him no more than what was just necessary to govern them p. 119. the people in whom the Soveraign power resides may call this their minister otherwise called King to an account for the administration of this his trust and in case he should not acquit himself according to their expectation the Soveraign Subject might punish this their Subject King turn him out of his office as all Supreme governours may their subordinate officers nay and set up any other form of Government whatsoever without doing any manner of injustice to their King This is our Authors doctrine as appears not only by inevitable consequences drawn from this mâ—tuated or fide-commissary power which he hath placed in the King but from the whole context and course of his Libel Now though Hell it self could not have invented a proposition more notoriously false though the whole Association could not have asserted a more Traiterous principle though the Supreme power or Soveraign right of Government hath been fixed to the imperial Crown of England ever since the beginning of History or Kings amongst us or the memorial of any time though more than twenty Parliaments which are the wisdom and Representatives of the whole Nation have by several explanatory Acts and Statutes confessed declared and affirmed that this Soveraign Authority or power of England is solely in the King and his laâ—â—ul Heirs and Successors in exclusion to all other mortal power whatsoever Rex habet potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Nay although all the Power Priviledges Liberties and even the Estates of the people proceeded originally from the meer bounty of our Kings as both ancient and modern Authors and Histories have evidently made it appear And after all notwithstanding our Author hath not produced one single authority or one little peice of an Act Statute or Law to prove that the Soveraign power is in the people or that the King held his authority only in trust from them as he plainly affirms or when they entrusted him with it or had it in themselves to grant yet by an unparallelled piece of impudence and vanity he dares to bring his own private opinion in competition with the wisdom learning practice decrees and justice of the whole Nation condemn our Ancestors as betrayers of the peoples rights and priviledges and by a single ipse dixit prove himself the only true Physician learned Statesman and except some who in most Ages have been Executed for their most horrid Treasons the only worthy Patriot of his Countrey and Defender of its rights Now lest some of our ignorant and infatuated multitude like the Children of Hamel should dance after our Authors popular and Northern Bagpipe until he precipitates them all into inevitable ruin and destruction I am resolved not to insist at present upon his Majesties Hereditary and undoubted Soveraign right of power which he now possesses not only by prescription and a Succession of more than eight hundred years but by all the Laâ—s of the Land as hath been already declared and the universal consent of all his good Subjects confirmed by their Oaths of Allegeance from which none but Rebels and perjured men can depart I will not I say at present urge those arguments which are sufficient to convince opiniastrete and wilful ignorance it self but will attack him in his strongest Gothick â—orts and the rational part upon which he seems most to value himself And first for these Goths I cannot find in any History when it was they came over into England nay I am confident that all Learned men will agree that there is no probable conjecture from any Author that they ever have been here or crost our Seas or came nearer us than Normandy one argument amongst others is the flourishing condition of our Island above France where the Goths and Vandalls had made some ravage in point of Learning and Sciences insomuch that Alcuinus an Englishman and Scholar to the Venerable Bede was sent unto Charles the Great to whom he became Doctor or Professor in Divinity Astronomy and Philosophy and by his direction erected the University of Paris But to return to our Goths it is certain that at first they travelled South-East which is very different from South-West such as iâ— our situation from theirs And yet our politick Author tells us positively according to his usual method that they establish'd their government in these parts after their conquest p. 93. And endeavouring to prove in p. 46. and 97. that according to their institution the people had an influence upon the Government he tells us that the Governments of France Spain and England by name and other countries where these people setled were fram'd accordingly Here we see our Country conquer'd and an excellent form of Government establish'd by the Goths so good and admirably just that we in this age must quit our happy Monarchy which hath subsisted most gloriously many Hundreds of years only to run a wool-gathering after these precarious Gothick Princes and yet no man could ever tell us when this conquest happen d nor by whom nor what became of them nor indeed any thing more than what the extravagant fancy of our Author hath imagin'd As for the Romans who conquer'd us sure they were neither Goths nor Northern people and so nothing can be pretended from that Conquest nor are the Saxons who next invaded us to be called Northern people by us at least who lye so much North to them our selves But forgiving Plato all his absurdities and incongruities the rather that we may find out the Truth and confound him with
it we will suppose that by his Goths and Northern people he means the Saxons for the Danes were but a very little while I think not thirty years masters of England and so what may be gather'd in favour of his popular Government from them if any thing could would not be much material We will imagine then that our Saxons were of the race of the Goths and that retaining their customs They introduc'd many of them amongst us such as might be the division of the lands into several Feuds which they called Thane lands and were like our Mannors or Lordships under certain Tenures or Services Many also they might have found amongst the Britains and retain'd them under their own Government for it is certain the Britains held lands by several Tenures but whether they were originally of their own Institution or the remains of the Roman Clientela's and Praeda militaria I will not determine I have already told you that the Goths upon their first Transplantation and after they were setled in their new possessions were govern'd by Kings whose power encreas'd despotically according as the people grew secure and civiliz'd and so they continued above a thousand years nor do I find that the people in all this time pretended to any other share in the government than to meet in General Councils when the affairs of the Kingdom oblig'd their King to assemble them And truly I ever thought such National Assemblies when well regulated very conducible to the security and happy subsistence of all Governments and such our antient Monarchs have thought fit to make use of and have transmitted the custom of convoking such Councils which we not call Parliaments even to our days But that these Counsellors should have any right of command is so contrary to the design of their Institution that as this must needs be dangerous to the Government it self so they make their good Institution useless by rendring themselves suspected to the King who alone hath the right to assemble them For what wise Magistrate would by his own authority raise a power which he apprehends might shock his own The sad effects of this we have seen of late days among our selves when our Commoners in Parliament who were meer Counsellors and no more or Representatives with a power to consent have arrogated to themselves a Soveraign authority and under that pretence have forceably and violently subverted our antient Government and destroyed our Lawful and Natural Governour himself and have besides of late spent so much time in unnecessary new disputes concerning their own rights and prerogatives which really do not much concern us that they have totally neglected those main ends of their meeting which are the Security of our Government under our Lawful Soveraign and the peace and happiness of his people and which are the only blessings and benefits which we desire of them Nay they have been so far from procuring those advantages for us to which purposes they have been solely entrusted by us that their disputes concerning the Succession to the Crown of England which is indisputable The Right which the King hath to borrow money upon good Security which was never taken from the poorest of his Subjects shewing mercy upon unfortunate offenders which is his Nature as well as undoubted Prerogative and several such other irregular Heats and Animosities are the most apparent causes of our present horrid Conspiracies troubles and distractions But to return to our Goths I have told you that after their division those that spread toward the West and Southern parts of Europe were in a continual state of war and so their King was but their General whom sometimes they did depose or continue according as they found him capable of that great employment upon whose conduct in their dangerous circumstances their Lives and Fortunes did chiefly depend and such in some respects was the case of our Saxons under their Heptarchy here in England All the world knows that they invaded us without any pretence of title being only call'd in as friends by Vortigern the British King to assist him against the Scots and by degrees encroaching upon the Britains they erected several Kingdoms until at length the Native Inhabitants were totally over-power'd But this made very little alteration in their affairs for wanting a common enemy they were always quarrelling amongst themselves usurping upon one another untill their several little Governments were united under one Soveraign Monarch who was Egbert as some write or Alfred the eighteenth King of the West-Saxons ` T is true that during Vide Chron. Sir R Baker their Heptarchy they chose one amongst themselves who was the Supreme head of the rest and was call'd King of Engle-lond And it is recorded that eight of the Mercian Kings in a continued succession kept the Imperial Crown of the Heptarchy But it was rather a titular honour than a Soveraign right of Government and I do not find but that every particular King in his own Province did generally exercise those two great Regalities of making Laws and levying Taxes by vertue of his own authority But whether they did or not it is little to our purpose since we have no reason to follow the examples of those petty Kings and Vsurpers especially when we consider their circumstances But if we must lay aside the form of Government since the Norman conquest from whence our Aera begins and concerning which our Histories are more certain and Authentick let us then rather consult the Administration of those West-Saxons who solely and Soveraignly enjoy'd the Crown of England And not to be too tedious we will six upon King Edward the Confessor the last except Harold of our English Saxon Kings I shall not trouble you with much neither concerning him because you may find at large whatever can be said of him in our own English Histories I shall only therefore make this remark that we have had no Kings since William the Conqueror nor was he himself more absolute than King Edward the Confessor was I remember nothing of his impositions but rather believe there might have been none during his reign because I find that he remitted to his people the yearly Tribute of 40000 l. that had been gathered by the name of Danegelt But for Laws which now are made by Act of Parliament I observe no such Parliamentary way of proceedings in his days It is true that he called a Councel or Wittena Gemote which some call very improperly a Parliament especially as it is now understood in the second year of his Reign but the Commoners were so far from having any right of power that their presence was not really necessary Minores laici non sammoneri debent sed si eorum praesentia necessaria fuerit c. Which shews plainly that they might be omitted Nay although they were summoned and did not appear nevertheless the Parliament was taken to be full without them Which is a sufficient proof that the Commons
were not so much as an essential part of the Parliament and it is certain that Edward the Confessor took the same course about his Laws as the Greeks and Romans formerly had done the first fetching their institutions from the Aegyptians and the latter from the Greeks So King Edward having gathered together the Laws of the Mercians West Saxons Danes and Northumbrians he selected the best and compiled them into one body which being approved in Councilâ— by his own authority he commanded they should be observed and they were the fountain of those which we call at this day the Common Law Canutus the Danish Vsurpeâ— called also a Council or Parliament at Oxford in which he made several good Laws but I do not find that the Commoners pretended any right in the Supreme authority at that time any more than afterwards But however I cannot believe that their example is any argument for us to forsake the present constitution of our English Monarchy to hunt after the polity of an Invader who with his Successors enjoyed not the Crown of England the fiftieth part so long as the Norman Line hath done Now Cousin you see what is become of those great expectations which we might have had from the noise and bustle which our Author makes of the Northern polities and their exact rules of Government but so it falls out that in our days mountains are no less apt to bring forth mice than formerly And that when there is a great cry there is not always the more wooll For in this case contrary to his undeniable Aphorism though it may possibly be true that the Saxons made some division of the Lands amongst the people for our present division of Lands and Tenures also were generally made and instituted by the Normans yet they retained the Soveraign authority themselves Merch. Sir I am obliged to you for remembring me of what I had read before but could not apply it so well to our present purpose as you have done But believing that you are clearly in the right I shall not trouble you any farther concerning those Northern polities but desire that you would proceed and let me know what you mean by the rational part Trav. By the rational part I mean this that granting all to be true which our Author hath affirmed concerning those Goths and Northern people and that in the original constitution of our Government the people had a share in the Supreme Authority and that the prerogative which our King at present lawfully possesses hath been by degrees gained from the people All which is so notoriously false that on the contrary the people have lately encroached upon the prerogative yet I say at this time and as our present circumstances stand it is more rational that all honest and sober men who laying aside ambition and malice consider impartially the just rights and liberties of the people together with the preservation of our Government and the general happiness of the Nation should rather endeavour by all lawful means to increase the power of his present Majesty than diminish it And supposing we were at liberty to choose what form of Government we pleased rather continue it a Monarchy as it is than set up such a Democratical form or phantastical model as our Author having stoln it in a great measure from the propositions of the Rebels sent to the late King in the Isle of Wight and the transactions of Forty Eight hath proposed to us Merch. The performance of this Sir will be such a full satisfaction to us all that nothing will remain farther for our consideration but to contrive a means how we may better secure our present Government and by enacting farther good Laws if necessary with a strict execution of them reduce our pestilent Republican disturbers of our peace unto a due obediencâ— to their Natural and Lawful Prince One thing more I must beg of you by the way which is to let me know why you suppose all along that ouâ— Author would set up a Common-wealth since he tells us plainly p. 209. That he abhorrs the thoughts of wishing a Democracy much less endeavouring any such thing during these circumstances we are now in that is under Oaths of obedience to a Lawful King Trav. I thank you Sir for putting me in mind of it but indeed I thought you had by this time sufficiently understood how to distinguish a Presbyterian or otherwise Phanatical Commonwealth man's publick declaration from his more private meaning I must therefore mind you of this observation by the way that I never yet met with any of those Authors who was not demonstrably a wilful malicious Knave in his writings But truly in this case I think our Author is frank and plain enough I shall therefore mind you of some passages which I shall leave to your own Interpretation He tells us p. 182. That our present estate inclines to popularity and I do not find but that he inclines as much to comply with our estate as they could wish but let us come to his declaration against it where he protests that he hates the thoughts of wishing a Commonwealth but yet insinuates from the story of Themistocles his firing the Grecian ships That nothing could be more advantagious and profitable for us which surely shews his good inclinations plain enough But I am fully perswaded that our Governours have taken no less care to secure us against the literal than the metaphorical sence of his â—ine tale and will as well preserve our Navy as our Government from his Diabolical designs But now he gives us the reason why he cannot think of a Common-wealth because conscientious good man he is loth to break his oath of obedience to a Lawful King But for this Lawful King himself it is no matter if he be perjur'd to the very bottom of destruction who having no less sworn and that solemnly too to maintain the antient Monarchical Government as at present by Law confirmed and establish'd with all the rights and prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of England may break all betray his poor Subjects their rights and liberties abandon them to the mercy of unmerciful Tyrants and be damn'd if he pleases Nay our Author kindly advises him to it and rather than his cursed project should fail he perswades him it is the best thing he can do Whereas it is plain That the power of the Kings of England is restrained or limited as we may say in nothing more considerable than this viz. That they cannot by their own Grant sever their Prerogatives from the Crown nor communicate any part thereof to any one no not to the Princes their eldest Sons as may be seen more at large in Sir J. Davies upon Impositions cap. 29. besides many other good Authors Nay more he tells us there That neither the Kings Acts nor any Act of Parliament can give away his Prerogative and farther that no Act of Parliament in the Negative can take
did not expect and hesitating much without giving any satisfactory account of what was demanded he was cast into chains and punish'd according to the hainousness of the offence Mer. And may all the Manlii amongst us be alike confounded Next Sir I cannot approve of the liberty men take of publishing their private sentiments which are generally grounded upon nothing but conjecture and Enthusiastical follies Trav. Certainly nothing would conduce more to our quiet than that the liberty of the press should be restrain'd But since it is not our business to look into those liberties which we enjoy so much as into those which we want let us leave the consideration of these and many other such things to our prudent Governours I shall only note this one thing by the way that since the Act of Habeas Corpus I think I may confidently affirm that even at this time when there is so much danger of a pretended slavery the Subjects of England enjoy a greater liberty than was known to any of our Ancestors before us Pray therefore proceed to the second consideration which is our properties Mer. That is wholly unnecessary for all the world knows that whatsoever we possess is so secured by the Laws of the Land that the King himself doth not pretend in prejudice of those Laws which indeed are his own Laws to touch the least Chattel that belongs to us nor can any Tax be impos'd but such as shall be granted by Act of Parliament which is the very Government that our Author so much approves And in a word Plato himself has clear'd this point telling us p. 127 That the people by the fundamental Laws that is by the constitution of the Government of England have entire freedom in their lives properties and their persons neither of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws And to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birthright all Trials must be by twelve men of our equals and in the next page lest the King 's Soveraign authority might be urg'd as a stop to the execution of those Laws he tells us That neither the King nor any by authority from him hath any the least power or jurisdiction over any English man but what the Law gives him And if any person shall be so wicked as to do any injustice to the life liberty or estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person aggriev'd or his next of kin if he be Assassinated shall have the same remedy against the offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of the Land if there had been no such command given Now dear Cousin in the name of sense and reason where can be the fault and distemper of our Government as it relates to the ease and priviledge of the Subject if this be the constitution of it as at least our Author himself affirms Trav. Faith Sir I could never find it out nor any man else that ever I could meet withal And what is still stranger our great Platonick Physician hath not vouchsafed to give us any one particular instance in what part our disease lyes notwithstanding he alarms us with dismal news of being dead men and that without such a strange turn of Government as his pregnant Noddle hath found out we are ruin'd for ever 'T is true he tells us that the property being in the hand of the Commoners the Government must necessarily be there also and for which the Commoners are tugging and contending very justly and very honourably which makes every Parliament seem a present state of war Mer. But Sir if it be true that we enjoy all those benefits and blessings before mentioned that the Government it self secures these properties inviolably to us which we know to be most certain without the testimony of Plato or any man else what then does this tugging concern us or what relation has it to our happiness which is already as great as we can wish it to be Must the enjoyment of our properties put us into a state of war Must our health become our disease and our fatness only make us kick against our masters what can this contention for Government signifie more than ambition and what could their success produce less than Tyranny should the House of Commons become our masters what could they bestow upon us more than we already enjoy except danger and trouble And what can our present Government take from us except the fears of those fatal consequences which such a popular innovation would induce Let then the property be where it will and if we possess it securely we are the happier for it Trav. Your reasons are too plain and strong to be resisted I shall quit therefore this point and inform you how our Author seems in many places to insinuate that the want of frequent and annual Parliaments is the cause of our distemper and that calling a Parliament every year might prove a pretty cure according to a certain Act in the time of Edward the first and that then instead of hopping upon one leg we might go limping on upon three Mer. Faith Cousin you are now gotten out of my reach and you must answer this your self I can only proceed according to my former rule which is that if we be as happy as we can be a Parliament cannot make us more Trav. That answer is I think sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man However we will speak somewhat more particularly concerning this matter as we find it recorded in History Our Author informs us in p. 110. That by our Constitution the Government was undeniably to be divided between the King and his Subjects which by the way is undeniably and notoriously false for according to our ancent Constitution as well under the Saxon as our Norman Kings the Government or the right of Power was originally and solely in our Kings And that divers of the great men speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the first about it called a Parliament and consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms right in that point So there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be The same he confirms in p. 159. and in other places Now Sir if after these fine Speeches by those great men whom undoubtedly our Author could have named to this excellent Prince it should happen at last that there was no such Act during the Reign of Edward the first what would you think of our Author Merch. In troth Sir it would not alter my opinion for I already believe him to be an impudent magisterial Impostor Trav. I fear indeed he will prove so for except he hath found in his politick search some loose paper that never yet came into our Statute books we must conclude that he is grossly mistaken For the first Act that is extant of that kind was in the
so necessary to be effected that it was morally impossible to succeed in the former until the latter was actually executed It being then most certain that our Authors intention was to establish a Common wealth I shall now give you my reasons why we ought not upon any terms to admit of it And first I shall not insist much upon those vulgar inconveniences which are visible to all men As for example the inevitable consequences of most bloudy wars For can any rational man believe that all the Royal family should be so insensible of their right and honour as never to push for three Kingdoms which would so justly belong to them or could they be supposed to leave England under their popular usurpation what reason hath Scotland to truckle under the Domination of the English Commonalty What pretence hath the English Subject supposing they were to share in the English Government over the Kingdom of Scotland All the world knows that that Kingdom belongs so particularly to our King that the late Rebells themselves did not scruple to call him King of the Scots Why should Ireland also become a Province to an English Parliament Or should both Kingdoms be willing to shake off the Government of their Natural Lawful and antient Monarchy why should they not set up a Democracy or an Aristocracy or what else they pleas'd amongst themselves Is there never a Statesman in the three Kingdoms but Plato Redivivus Can none teach them to Rebel but he No rules to maintain an usurpt Authority but what we find among his extravagancies I am confident you do not believe it Shall these people notoriously known to have hated one another whilst formerly they were under different Governours become the strictest friends when they shall return unto those circumstances under which they were the greatest enemies Will the French King take no advantage having so good a pretext of our Divisions Or should we unite against him under our popular Governours was it ever known that a Confederate army was able to defend themselves long against an Army of equal strength commanded by one sole absolute Monarch Can we foresee any thing but most desperate wars and can wars be supported but by most heavy taxes Were not our Thimbles and Bodkins converted in the late times into Swords and Mortar pieces and by a prodigious transmutation never before heard of were not our Gold and Ear-rings turn'd into a brazen Idol These consequences Cousin and dismal effects of a Commonwealth besides many other are so obvious that I shall not spend any more time to mind you of them Supposing then that none of those former horrid inconveniences might happen I must mind you by the way that one reason why our Author and the Associators desire a Commonwealth proceeds from the fear of a certain Arbitrary power which they pretend the King would introduce as may be seen pag. 161. 208 and in several other places Now Though nothing be more extravagant than such a groundless imagination our Author having assured us that his Majesty never did one act of Arbitrary power since his happy restoration And moreover pag. 176. That our laws against Arbitrary power are abundantly sufficient Yet that we may no more dispute this point I must produce Plato's own authority against himself in these words That the King fears his power will be so lessened by degrees that at length it will not be able to keep the Crown upon his head pag. 208. Nay farther in pag. 214. he shews us That it is impossible he should ever become an Arbitrary King For his present power as little as it is is yet greater than the condition of property can admit and in a word from his beloved Aphorism and the whole course of his Libel he endeavours to prove that Dominion being founded on the property and the property being in the people the King can have no manner of hopes upon earth of becoming absolute nor introducing an Arbitrary Government but by some Army of Angels from Heaven who must procure him an Authority which he cares not for The next and main reason why our Author would set up a Democracy at least as far as I can collect from the whole scope of his discourse is because the State inclines to popularity Now Sir for this last time I must make use of our Author 's own reasons against his own positions and do affirm that for this very reason were there no other all sober men and true Politicians ought to oppose with their utmost endeavours a Popular Government I will not recount to you the many mischiefs desolations and destructions which a popular power hath brought along with it whereever it goâ—â—he better of the antient Established Government of the place Somewhat hath been already said to this purpose in our discourse and much more may be read in the Histories of most parts of the world to which I refer you and shall only mind you of some inevitable consequences which will follow such an innovation amongst our selves And first if it be true that the King hath no power to make himself absolute then we have no cause to apprehend an Arbitrary power in him and by consequence no reason to change But if the inclination of the people be such that they will take advantage of the King's want of power and introduce their own Government what moderation may we expect from men towards those who are to become their Subjects who shaking off all sense of Justice Law Religion and temper dare usurp the Soveraign authority over their natural Governour Where shall we appeal for mercy when having cut the throat of the most merciful King in Europe we expose our own to our ambitious and unmerciful Tyrants Where shall we expect compassion towards our selves when we shall become Parricides and Regicides to our father and our King Where shall we seek after Eqâ—ity when the House of Lords the supreme Court of Equity are most unjustly turn'd out of doors and what end of our miseries can we ever hope for when our Tyrants by our villanous Authors constitution have not only got all the Wealth and Militia into their hands but have perpetuated their usurpation by annual Parliaments never to end Who being Judges of their own priviledges p. 254. may regulate elections as they shall think fit p. 249. Sit Adjourn Prorogue and Dissolve as they alone shall judge expedient What more barbarous villany was ever propos'd and publish'd under a lawful and peaceable Government besides our own upon earth But suppose our poor Country thus enslav'd and our antient Kingdom turn'd into a Common-wealth what can our new masters do for us more than is already done Can our libâ—rties be greater as to our persons and estates It is impossible to suppose it Will our properties be more secur'd all the Laws that ever were upon earth under any Government cannot make them more inviolable Nothing then can remain but liberty in Religion which we call of
PLATO's Demon Or the STATE-PHYSICIAN Unmaskt Being a Discourse in Answer to a Book call'd Plato Redivivus By Thomas Goddard Esq Si unum Id spectamuâ— quam nefaria voce Lutorius Priscus mentem suam aures hominum polluerit neque carcer neque laqueâ—â— ne serviles quidem cruciatus in eum suffecerint Tacit. Ann. lib. 3. LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1684. To His ROYAL HIGHNESS JAMES Duke of YORK c. Royal Sir THe sense which all sober Men and good Subjects ever will retain of that Safety and Protection which the Nation owes to your Princely Wisdom and true born Courage obligeth us to look upon your Royal Person next to His most Sacred Majesty as Our Sword Our Shield and Our securest Hopes You are Our Head in Council and Our Arm in Battel and as we all ought to fight under your Royal Banner against the force and injuries of a Foreign Foe so is it Our Duty to oppose no less the Seditious Conspiracies and Traiterous Associations of Our little malicious scribling Enemies at home Amongst many of that deceiving or deceived Crew none seems more impudently extravagant than the Author of a Libel call'd Plato Redivivus The Book it self with the encouragement which I had to answer it I received about May last at Paris from that most Loyal and most Worthy Minister my Lord Preston What I have been able to do in this little time I most humbly offer at your Highness's Feet being fully assured that your Royal Highness will never refuse your Princely Protection to what Person so ever shall sincerely endeavour to defend according to his strength Our Regal Government with its just Rights and Prerogatives May Heaven continue your Royal Person a Blessing to these Kingdoms to the utmost extent of Providence and Mercy And may these Nations endeavour to deserve so great a Blessing by an unfeigned Respect Duty and Gratitude without limit Your Royal Highness's Most Obedient Most Faithful and Most Humble Servant T. G. TO THE READER THe inquity and licentiousness of the times are such that those wicked Principles which the most perverse of men in former days would hardly trust to their private thoughts In these men impudently dare to publish Amongst many Seditious Libels which of late have come abroad none is more insolently bold than that which bears the Name of Plato Redivivus The Author seems so hardened and confirmed in his Villanous Errors that he makes no scruple to offer Treason and Sedition for Reason and Loyalty He would make us believe that he is supporting Our Government whilst he endeavours utterly to destroy it Propounds ruine and slavery in a quiet and peaceable way And disapproves a Civil Page 219. War only because he doubts the success He beseeches the King therefore that he would be graciously pleased to lay down his Imperial Crown Tells Page 220. him it will make himself Glorious and his People happy Adviseth him to Page 249. quit his lawful Power that he may be great Divest himself of his Prerogatives and Liberties that he may be free and become a ward to a Popular Juncto that he may live at ease And that this their Pupil King may not doubt the kind intentions of his Indulgent Governours they promise to take immediately Page 258. the Administration of the Regal Authority into their own hands and make him as idle as he would prove an insignificant Prince Ease him of the trouble of making Peace and War abroad and Page 237. Officers and Ministers Page 239. at home Take away from him the disposal of the Militia by Sea and Land as also of his own Revenue as affairs too mean and below the consideration of such an absolute Monarch Disingage him from the Obligation of bestowing Honours and Titles upon Persons deserving well That Barons Earls and Dukes shall be henceforward created Page 252. by the Authority and Favour of Gentlemen Esquires and Knights And last of all that the Dignity of this their Glorious King might lose nothing of its lustre from the Communication of laborious business and the concerns of Government it is proposed that the King shall have no more Authority to Page 249. Call Adjourn Prorogue or Dissolve Parliaments That their Annual Session shall be perpetuated to all Eternity And least an Honest Sober and Loyal Parliament should in process of time undo what a Knavish Hot-brain'd and Traiterous Assembly had imposed upon us Page 249. Elections are to be regulated according to their own fancies and Honesty and Loyalty are to be perpetual marks of Incapacity And in a word when they are once elected It is concluded that they shall be Judge and Party in their own Cause Page 254. and govern themselves World without end according to their own Independent and most Soveraign Right of Power Now least these and many other Propositions howsoever illegal and extravagant should not be embraced as chearfully as they are loyally and honestly intended Our Author assures us That he hath proposed nothing in Page 258. his Discourse which intrencheth upon the Kings Hereditary Right These Worthy Reader are the just Principles and sound Foundation upon which Our Author pretends to build his new-found Government And that the Effect may answer so good and so great a Project He assures us that such a blessed Reformation will not fail to work Miracles The King shall be more absolute when he hath no Power at all than ever Page 249. he was or could be before The Lords more honourable when they receive their Honours from the People Page 256. 7. than when they were given by the King The People shall enjoy their Liberties and Properties more Secure now they are become their own Slaves than when they were the Kings Subjects No Fires in London but of their own making no Want in the Country no Wars abroad nor Troubles at home but of their own raising Presbyterians Page 186. and Papists like Peace and Righteousness shall kiss each other The Lyon shall lie down with the Lamb and there shall be no more enmity between the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman Nay such is the force of our wonder-working politick Apostle that provided his Tyrannical Popular Vsurpation may take place against a Lawful Natural the most Easie Monarchy upon Earth all Interests will be reconciled all Persons of whatsoever different Principles or Professions they be whether Jew or Greek a Samaritan or of the dwellers of Mesopotamia They shall all understand his charming and irresistible reasoning in their own Languages that is according to each man's design and the desires of his own heart Now although the extravagances fallacies of our vain Magisterial Author are obvious enough to all sober considering men yet since Error is more communicative than Truth and some men especially such as may be already prejudiced are more apt
Institution of a Senate composed of twenty eight of his own chiefest Friends The Kingdom he deliver'd to his Nephew assoon as he came of Age. Mer. What kind of Government do you call that Trav. Monarchy without doubt It is true their Senate had given to them a greater Right of Power than ours have who enjoy only a Right of Counsel and Consent or a subordinate Power for the Dispensation of Justice and the People had Liberty to choose their Senators But the Right of making Peace and War vvith several other Prerogatives together vvith the Right of Succession continued alvvays in the Prince Mer. I have heard much talk of the Ephori Were not they created on purpose to abate the Authority of their Kings Trav. Sir they were not created until about an Hundred and thirty years after the death of Lycurgus And then if we may believe their Kings Agis and Cleomenes whom our Author hath mention'd their Authority was only to do justice whilst their Kings were absent in the Wars and were properly the Kings Ministers they usurped indeed afterwards a Soveraign Authority and dar'd to depose the Kings themselves for which Usurpation Cleomenes who divided again the Land among the People slew them publickly as enemies to the ancient Government and present prosperity and peace of Sparta Mer. Pray Cousin what new Laws did Lycurgus institute with his new Government Trav. Many Sir but sure not much to our purpose or fit for our imitation for at first they had none Non habentibus Spartanis leges instituit c. Their Prince's will being as I have already observ'd the only rule But Lycurgus considering I imagin the greatness of the Spartan name fram'd Laws most proper for the encouraging War and educating the People from their infancy in a military kind of Discipline Amongst other Laws he totally forbad the use of Gold and Silver Auri argentique usum velut omnium scelerum materiam sustulit he forbad traffick but encourag'd idleness and stealing He commended parsimony and hardship and order'd that all the People of Sparta should always eat together that none should eat at his own house except upon great occasion That the young Women should dance and exercise publickly without any manner of covering upon them and many such too long to repeat at present Judge then how ridiculous and unpracticable and unnecessary these Laws would appear in our age and in our climate and circumstances To conclude let me refer you to two sufficient Authors concerning the Spartan Laws The first is Aristotle in his 7. Pol. cap. 14. who tells us that the cheif admirers of the Spartan Commonwealth have plac'd its sole excellency in having Laws adapted most Particularly for War and Victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The other is Euripides in his Andromache His Words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si vis Martia Vobis lacones absit et ferri decus Spectatur ultra quid sit eximium nihil What can ye boast ye Spartans if ye cease To fight like Dogs and live like Men in Peace Add to all this single Consideration That Lacedemonia was but as a small Province in Comparison of the Kingdom of Great Britany and Sparta no more than a Corporation Town And when you have done this let their Law or Form of Government be what it will I dare undertake to make it appear that they are so far from being made an Example for our Imitation that our own Government as distemper'd as our Author would have it even at this time while we are discoursing is a more excellent Form and the Laws more just and reasonable and conducing more to the Safety and Perpetuity of the Government and Peace and happy Subsistence of the People than either Sparta or Athens ever enjoyed or any other part of Greece or Government in the World except that Monarchy which God himself was pleas'd to institute and which above any other ours does most particularly imitate And this I hope is a sufficient Answer to whatsoever our Author hath offer'd concerning Greece Mer. Dear Cousin You have more than perform'd your Promise and that my Pleasure as well as Profit may be compleat pray let us proceed with our Author Trav. Assoon as you please Mer. What say you then to the first Day Trav. Very little save only that I never knew a Day worse spent in my Life nothing being more nauseous than to read the impertinent Complements of three Fools extolling one anothers great Parts and Learning when if we may believe the Publisher who comes in like Sapientum octavus the eighth wise Man the whole Triumvirate or if you will Quatrumvirate are included in the politick individuum of the English Gentleman Mer. Really I was almost deceiv'd at first and did begin to fancy that I knew the Physician Trav. It was without doubt his Design to deceive all Men. Mer. To what Purpose Trav. That he might make the credulous Reader believe that there were more learned Men of his Opinion besides himself But truly I think that neither the State of Venice nor Colledge of Physicians are much oblig'd to him for picking out two of their Societies to make up so ridiculous a Comedy Mer. Is that way of writing Ancient or Modern Trav. Dialogue was oftentimes very properly used among the Ancients but they seldom introduc'd more than two if the Subject of their Discourse were grave and serious Mer. Why then hath our Author made choice of three Trav. I suppose the noble Venetian wanted Learning enough to comprehend so profound a Discourse and the Physician we must imagine had not anatomiz'd or studied the Body Politick so throughly as he had done the Body Natural and so could not see so far into a Milstone as a Venetian Statesman can who as our Nobleman tells us will sometimes discover a State Marasmus breaking out two hundred Years after the passing an indigested Law and this without the help of any Telescope both therefore possessing separately these eminent Qualifications became joyntly an Auditory worthy of Sir Politick Wouldbee's Doctrine Besides you know the number Three is most perfect But had I been advis'd withall I could have shewn our Author this Number of Three so ingeniously and politically plac'd that our Medicopolitico-Venetian Publisher might have born a better part than he does in his Book without either altering the Number or spoiling the Figure But to be serious I must confess Cousin that I have sometimes heard two or three Fools cogâ—â—onaring one another as our Author calls it and it hath been pleasant enough But that one Coglione should presume to coglionare three Kingdoms impose upon His Majesty despise the Wisdom of the Lords and Commons His Majesty's Privy Council and Learned Judges of the Land and last of all to give the Fool to all our Worthy Ancestors who have liv'd within the Compass of four hundred years according to his Account
there reigned any King over the Children of Israel And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families after their Places by their Names And Verse the last These be the Dukes of Edom according to their Habitations in the Land of their Possessions he is Esau the Father of the Edomites Now what can be more particular or express than what I have here produc'd Or what can he mean by tracing the Foundation of Polities which are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began if these will not pass for such He cannot pretend that we should bring a long Roll of Parchment like a Welch Pedigree ap Shinkin ap Morgan and so from the Son to the Father untill we arrive at ap Ismael ap Esau ap Magog ap Javan and so forth that would be too childish to imagine of him for we know very well that all the Kingdoms upon the Earth have oftentimes chang'd their Masters and Families But if he means as surely he must if he mean any thing that we cannot name any such Kingdom or Government that hath been so begun then he is grosly mistaken for the Assyrians the Medes the Ethiopians or Cusoei the Lydians the Jones or Greeks and very many others are sufficiently known and preserve to this day the very names of their first Founders who as is made appear were all Fathers of Families Mer. Cousin I begin to be very weary of this rambling Author Pray therefore let us go on as fast as we can Trav. Read then what follows Mer. As for Abraham whilst he liv'd as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question govern'd their Housholds as all others do What have you to say to this Holy Patriarch and most excellent Man Trav. I say we are beholden to our Author that he did not call him a Country Farmer some such a one it may be as in his new Model of the Government is to share the Royal Authority Indeed it is hard that whom the declar'd Enemies to the Hebrew People have thought fit to call a King we who adore the Son of Abraham will not allow to be better than a common Housholder Mer. I confess my Reading is not great but as far as the Bible goes I may adventure to give my Opinion And if I mistake not the Children of Heth own'd him to be a mighty Prince among them Trav. Yes Sir and the Prophet David in the hundred and fifth Psalm calls him the Lords Anointed But because I perceive the Word of God is too vulgar a Study for our Learned Statesman I have found out a Prophane Author who concurs with the History of the Bible And first Justin makes no Scruple to call him in plain Words a King Post Damascum Azillus Mox Adores Abraham Israel Reges fuere lib. 36. Josephus also and Grotius who are Men of no small Repute even amongst the most Learned have quoted Nicolaus Damascenus to vindicate the Regal Authority of Abraham His Words are very intelligible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And tells us moreover that in his Days which was in the Reign of Augustus the Fame of Abraham was much celebrated in that Country and that there was yet a little Town remaining which was called by his Name Mer. I perceive when Men grow fond of their own Imaginations they run over all and neither Reason nor Religion have any Power to stop them Trav. Then he introduceth Samuel upon the Stage chiefly I suppose to insinuate that the People had a Power and did choose themselves a King which is so notoriously false that they never had the least share or pretended any in the election of Saul It is true they chose rather to be govern'd by a temporal King who was to live amongst them and rule as other Kings did than continue under the Government of the King of Heaven and Earth and so the Word chose relates wholly to the Government but not to the Person of the Governour For which Samuel also reproves them and accordingly they acted no farther leaving the Election of their new King wholly to God and their Prophet and God did particularly choose him from the rest of their People and Samuel actually anointed him before the People knew any thing of the matter Afterwards lest some might have accus'd Samuel of Partiality in the Choice he order'd Lots to be cast which in the Interpretation of all men is leaving the Election to God and Saul was again taken What Junius Brutus another old antimonarchical seditious Brother objects concerning renewing the Kingdom at Gilgal where it is said And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord will serve very little to prove any Right of Power in the People no not so much as of Election for confirming and renewing the Kingdom and such like Expressions signifie no more than the taking by us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which I think were never thought to give the King any Right to the Crown but only a just Right to punish us for our Perjury as well as Disobedience in Case of Rebellion So renewing the Covenant with God as particularly a little before the Death of Joshuah cannot be supposed to give a greater right of Power to God Almighty than what he had before but is only a stricter Obligation for the Peoples Obedience that they might be condemned out of their own Mouths And Joshuah said unto the People See ye are Witnesses against your selves So Samuel makes the People bind themselves to God to their King and to their Prophet that they would faithfully obey him whom the Lord had set over them And behold saith Samuel the Lord hath set a King over you But having spoke more to this purpose elsewhere and the Case being most clear as well by the History it self as by the Authority of Grotius and other learned Men that Saul and the rest of the Hebrew Kings did not in the least depend upon their People but received all their Right of Power wholly from God we will proceed with our Author Only I must note by the way that with the learned Gentleman's leave neither the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People nor the Princes of the Tribes had any manner of Power but what was subordinate and that only to judge the People according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses And so they continued to the Babylonish Captivity Grotius only observing in favour of the Sanhedrim that they had a particular Right of judging concerning a whole Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Mer. Well Sir we are now come to our modern despotical Power What say you to Mahomet and Cingis Can. Trav. Prethee Cousin let 's not trouble our selves with those Turks and Tartars they are yet â—ar enough off and not like to trouble us nor does their Government much concern us we have Laws of our own sufficient which
Nation in point of Strength yet whilst the Tenures are preserv'd such as were formerly in England the Prince had a stricter Tye upon the People than when having relinquish'd them he hath no other Obligation upon them than his Parchment Right of Power and if you please their Oaths of Allegiance both which are cancell'd in a Moment while the Lands remain eternally in the People Trav. I have already told you That publick Right of Government or if you will the Right of publick Government doth not in the least depend upon Tenures for they are only particular Services and Royalties which Princes have sometimes thought good to reserve to themselves more or less according as they alone have thought fit and may be alter'd or relinquish'd without diminishing their Publick Right of Government over the Nation they being such as regard rather the private Person of the King as Lord of a Mannor than his Politick Capacity as Supreme Magistrate or Governour of the State And indeed many of these Services and Tenures were rather very inconvenient and burthensome to the People than beneficial to the Government Many such were anciently known in England and Scotland as well as France Amongst others what was more inhumane than that the Lord should have a Right to lye with his Tenants Wife the first Night they married which in France they call Droit de Jambage Some Services were very ridiculous and some extravagant So I have heard of a Tenure in France by which the Tenant is oblig'd at certain Times to drive a Cart with twelve Oxen round the Court of the Mannor House In which time if any of the Oxen happen to dung in the Court the Cart with the twelve Oxen was forfeited to the Lord of the Mannor but if none of the Oxen should dung untill they were driven out of the Court then the Lord was to receive only one Egg. Now how do these and many other such Services relate to a Right of Government So many Mannors were held of the King to accompany him in his Wars in England or in France or elsewhere some were obliged to carry his Spear some his Sword others his Helmet and such like which are all merely private Obligations and which any private Man might reserve upon consideration of Lands given It is true the King had then a stronger Tye upon particular Persons than since he hath released them But this I say hath no influence upon his Publick Right of Power for the Supreme Magistrate is always notwithstanding any such Release Master both of our Estates and Persons as far as they are necessary for the Preservation of the Government So you see Care is taken that all Lands shall pay their Quotas towards Horses and Footmen which is in use at this day which Forces so paid we call the Militia His Majesty may press Souldiers and by the Consent of his great Council the Parliament charge our Estates and Persons with such Sums as shall be thought expedient for the Occasion And this brings me to the third Point which is That all Sovereign Princes have a Right of Power over the Lands notwithstanding the Property be divided amongst the People And this proceeds from the Dominium Supereminens which is eternally in all Supreme Magistrates or Magistrate whatsoever whose Duty it is to look after and by all means secure the Preservation of the Whole in which every particular is involv'd Nor is it a sufficient Objection to say That Laws or Impositions may lye very heavy upon particular Men if such an Arbitrary Power should rest in any Government for Laws cannot be always made so easie but that Occasions may happen which may make them seem very hard to some Id modò quoeritur si majori parti in summo prosint Hence Grotius from Thucydides remarks an excellent Passage of Pericles to this purpose Sic existimo saith he etiam singulis hominibus plus eam prodesse civitatem quoe tota rectè se habeat quam si privatis floreat utilitatibus ipsa autem universim laboret Qui enim domesticas fortunas bene collocatas habet patria tamen eversa pereat ipse necesse est c. All which Livy thus briefly expresses Respublica incolumis privatas res salvas facile proestat Publica prodendo tua nequicquam serves That whilst the Commonwealth is safe in general our particular Concerns may be also easily secur'd But by deserting the publick Interest of the Nation we do thereby no ways preserve our own Nothing therefore seems more reasonable and indeed necessary than that the Government should have always a Power to compell every particular Subject who standing upon their private Rights and Properties would thereby suffer the Whole to be destroy'd For though naturally every Man hath a Right to maintain what is his own and by consequence might oppose whosoever would endeavour to take his Property from him yet Grotius tells us That Government which is instituted for the publick Tranquillity of the Whole or Tranquillitas publica in qua singulorum continetur acquires thereby a more Sovereign Right even â—ver our Persons as well as Possessions than we our selves can pretend to that is as far as shall be necessary for obtaining that great end of publick Preservation Civili societate ad tuendam Tranquillitatem instituta statim civitati jus quoddam majus in nos nostra nascitur quatenus ad finem illum id necessarium est Whence Seneca observes That the Power of all is ever in the Supreme Magistrate but the Property remains nevertheless in the Hands of particular Subjects Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos Proprietas And so as hath been said the King in Parliament hath a Right to dispose of our Estates and Persons as shall be thought necessary for our publick Security And where Sovereign Princes act without Parliaments they have in themselves the same Authority I have spoke already of the Power which the Government hath over our Estates and for our Persons Grotius hath furnish'd us with a Case very strong to shew the great Extent of Sovereign Authority He puts a Question Whether an innocent Citizen may be abandoned ad Exitium even to Destruction for the Common Good Without doubt says he such an innocent Citizen may be so abandon'd Dubium non est quin deseri potest And going still on how far such a Citizen is oblig'd to deliver himself he concludes That he may be forc'd to it and sacrific'd too to prevent an imminent Mischief both against his Will and entirely innocent Quare in nostra controversia verius videtur cogi posse civem for saith he Though one Citizen cannot compell another to any thing more than what is strictly just according to Law yet the Superiour hath a lawful Authority as Superiour to force an innocent Man to suffer for the Common Good Par parem cogere non potest nisi ad id quod jure debetur strictè dicto
were to protect them not only in all Law Suits but in what other occurrences might happen to them The Plebeians also were styled Clientes or their Clients who besides the Protection of their Patrons received also Lands from them under certain conditions which remained many years inviolable for example in case the Patron should be taken by the Enemy the Client was to contribute towards his Ransome as also towards the advancement of their Daughters in their Marriages they were not to inform or give testimony against their Patrons or if they did they were accursed and condemned as Traitors Diis inferis devovebantur proditionis erant rei besides many other obsequious duties and respects so we read that Appiuâ— Claudius gave Lands to his Clients even in the very Infancy of the Roman Government Nor was this jus tutelare personal only but it was also Gentilitium that is it extended it self into whole families as for instance some of them with their whole Generation were Clients under the protection of the Aemilian some under the Julian and others under the Claudian Families This constitution was of great use to the Common-wealth for the credit which the Patricii had with their Clients was sufficient oftentimes to appease their popular disturbances who yielding either to the Authority or Entreaties of their Patrons were brought to acquiesce though with some little prejudice to their own right and this continued many Ages until the ambition of the Tribunes interrupted this good correspondence between the Princes and the People and so honourable did the name of Client grow that many States and Governments who have voluntarily committed themselves to the fidelity or protection of the Romans did not disdain that Title Thus we see the Lands even within the narrow compass of the first Roman Monarchy divided amongst the Princes and the People which Lands so given to the latter were called Clientela's and accordingly we may observe under Servius Tullius their sixth King a Register of their particular Estates Regis solertia ita est ordinata respublica ut omnia Patrimonii dignitatis aetatis artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur Flor. c. 6. So we read of the Confiscation of the particular lands of Tarquinius superbus and yet Romulus and his successors were as absolute Monarchs as any of the Caesars have been and Julius Caesar himself by Will deviseth part of his own private estate to the Romans Thus was property or the possession of Lands divided amongst the people during the first Roman Monarchy thus it continued under the Roman as well as Graecian Empire thus it remains at present in the German Empire and thus it is established in all the most Christian Monarchies upon earth and not to forget our own Country I must observe out of a learned Author that our ancient British Kings who were as absolute as any made distribution also of their Land amongst their Subjects after this manner one paâ—t they gave to the Archflamens to pray for the Kings and their posterity a second part to the Nobility to do them Knights service a third to the Husbandmen to hold of them in Sâ—â—â—age and a fourth to the Mechanicks to hold in Bâ—rgage l. MS. Hâ—st Brit. And yet Plato Red. dares obtrude this proposition upon us p. 40. That in all states if the King had no Companions in the Soveraign Power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of the Lands But for further satisfaction let us consider the Government of Gods people or the Kingdom of the Jews I think all will agree that the Hebrews were proprietors of their Lands and held them upon as good a Title as the people of England do theirs even at this day We find in that History a particular account of the distribution of the Lands according to their Tribes who were at that time under a Monarchical Government whether we look upon God Almighty as their King who according to Grotius Hobbs Junius Brutus and all good Authors was Rex peculiaris Israelitarum or as Brutus tells us De jure Mag. p. 226. Ab initio Deus ipse aternus ejus Monarcha fuit non eo tantum nomine quod ipse rerum omnium supremum dominium obtinuit sed singulari quodam modo nempe c. Or whether under their High Priest who was Gods vicegerent except when he raised them up a Judge We hear of no Tenures or services amongst them other than such as all Subjects upon earth are oblig'd to perform for the honour of the King and publick safety It is plain from the story of Ahab in the case of Naboth's vineyard that Naboth had a clear right and property in the possession of his lands and that their Kings had no authority in their private capacities to force any Subject so much as to sell his land upon reasonable conditions Yet nevertheless neither the Kings of Persia nor of Egypt nor of any part of the East were more absolute than the Kings of Israel were and yet none had a less proportion in the possession of the lands Mer. Sir I shall grant you all except this That the Kings of Israel were absolute which I can hardly believe especially since our Author tells us the contrary and instances in the Sanhedrim the Assembly of the Tribes and Congregation of the Lord who all had a share in the Government as they had in the property Trav. I confess several zealous Commonwealths men have asserted this false doctrine and amongst others their old Coryphaeus Junius Brutus But I find no colour of pretence for this their assertion but we will examine the case as fully as this occasion will permit and refer you afterwards to what I have writ more at large concerning this point elsewhere And first it is necessary that we should agree what we mean by an absolute Monarch which is indeed a point rather controverted than clearly decided by any Author that I have yet met withal Sallust thinks it consists in an exemption from all humane jurisdiction Impune quidvis facere hoc est Regem esse Others that to be absolute a Prince ought to govern peremptorily according to his will So Juvenal Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas A third sort have declar'd that King truly absolute who giving Laws to others is subject to none himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to command without being oblig'd to give a reason why or wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aeschylus saith and again Rex est suo utens jure nulli obnoxius Hobbs will have it consist in the subjection of our wills to that of the Prince Homo ille vel concilium illud cujus voluntati singuli suam voluntatem subjecerunt summam potestatem sive summum imperium sive dominium habere dicitur Grotius whose opinion I must always esteem very much tells us that the most absolute or highest power is of that Prince whose actions are not accountable
or subject to any other mans right or authority so as that they may be made void according to the will or pleasure or decrees of any other mortal man Potestas summa illa dicitur cujus actus alterius juri non substunt ita ut alterius humanae voluntatis arbitrio irriti reddi possunt De jure B. P. p. 47. But with submission to so great authorities These do not reach the definition of an absolute Monarch in a good sense as it ever ought to be taken For though they have given their Prince exemption from all Laws and power enough to command yet they have not excluded Tyranny which indeed is oftentimes mistaken for absolute power I confess it seems hard to destroy the Tyrant and yet preserve the absolute Monarch However I shall presume to give such a definition as may do both which I refer to the impartial judgment of those who shall consider it An absolute Monarch then is he who having receiv'd a just authority executes the Laws of God and Nature without controul By receiving a just authority I exclude one principal mark of a Tyrant which is intrusion or usurpation In the next place I oblige the absolute Monarch to execute the Laws of God and Nature and nothing contrary to them By this also Government is freed from Tyranny in the use or exercise of authority For he who governs according to the Laws of God and Nature I speak of a Natural Monarch or a Monarch in the state of Nature does no unjust thing and is by consequence no Tyrant And lastly as I have secur'd the absolute Prince from Tyranny so I have plac'd him above all conditional limited Governments by these words without controul For he who commands or governs as far as the Laws of God and Nature permit hath certainly as ample and as absolute a Jurisdiction as any mortal man can justly possess This is so large a power that he who acts beyond it that is contrary to it is deservedly esteem'd a Tyrant and in such case the people are not oblig'd to obey And the reason is because the Prince having never receiv'd an authority to command that which is unjust that is to say contrary to the Laws of God and Nature the people are acquitted from their obediences as to that particular command All that we have now to do is but to apply this definition to the Hebrew Kings and from thence we shall be able to judge of their absolute power And first it is certain that they receiv'd their right of power from God himself and no other which continued by Succession especially after David unto the Babylonish captivity I have not time at present to inlarge upon this point and answer those frivolous objections which some men have brought against it You will find this done more fully in another place and confirm'd by the authority of Josephus Grotius and the History of the Bible I know some have pretended that David received his authority from the people and would prove it by a passage in 1 Chron. 11. where it is said that the Elders anointed David King over Israel But we must observe that David was Anointed first by Samuel and that by the express command of God himself and next this second Anointing by the people signified nothing more than to exclude by this publick act the pretensions of Isbosheth eldest Son to Saul Who without the special reveal'd will of God would have succeeded his father And this was ever practised where there was any interruption or dispute in the Succession So Solomon was anointed because of the difference between him and Adonijah otherwise that Ceremony was not absolutely necessary and was many times totally neglected Besides in the case of David it is plain that he received no right of power from the people but from God and that by their own confession both before and after their anointing And the Lord thy God said unto thee thou shalt feed my people Israel and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And again They anointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel 1 Chron. 11. 2 3. Hence Grotius observes that David gave God thanks for that God had subjected his people unto him David Deo gratias agit quod populum suum sibi subjecerit Taking it therefore for granted that David received no right of power from the people by consequence he depended upon none but God as all the most Soveraign Princes do and this is one great mark of an absolute Monarch In the next place he executed the laws of God and nature without controul I never heard any question made of this except in the case of judgment concerning a Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Which judgments Grotius supposed were taken from the Hebrew Kings Aliqua judicia arbitror regibus adempta But I rather think under favour that they were more properly Principibus concessa which makes a considerable difference For I find no mention of any time or power who could take those judgments from the King On the contrary we read of several Kings erecting Courts of Judicature and making Judges both in Gods cause and in the Kings And these three points being of the highest consequence the judgment of them might most probably be granted by the King to the determination of the highest Court of Justice In the first of Chron. chap. 26. v. 5. We find David making Rulers over the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseh for every matter pertaining to God and the affairs of the King but more particularly in the second of Chron. chap. 19. Jehoshaphat does the same thing but in terms more plain And he set Judges in the Land through all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City And said to the Judges take heed what you do c. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the Priests and of the Chief of the Fathers of Israel for the judgments of the Lord and for controversies when they return'd to Jerusalem And behold Amariel the Chief Priest is over you in all matters of the Lord and Zedekiah the son of Ishmael the Ruler of the house of Judah for all the Kings matters Indeed I should think that this is plain enough to prove that their Kings had in them the Supreme right of administring justice through their territories and made their Subordinate officers who wholly depended upon them and I am the more confirm'd in this opinion because I find both the High Priests and Prophets too judged condemned and pardoned even against the judgment of the Sanhedrim by the Kings single authority So Solomon banished the High Priest Abiathar Solomon Abiatharem Pontiâ—icem in exilium misit says Josephus lib. 8. so Jehoiakim slew the Prophet Vriah And they sent forth Vriah out of Aegypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim the King who slew him with the Sword Jer. 26. 23. The same did Joash
King of Judah to Zachariah the Prophet And they Conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the command of the King 2 Chron. 24. 21. and several other instances there are On the other side when the Sanhedrim intreated Zedekiah that they might put Jeremiah to death by his own single authority he preserv'd him against them Merch. Under favour Sir I have heard this very case of Jeremiah urg'd against the Soveraign power of the Hebrew Kings and produced as an instance to shew the independent right of the Sanhedrim For when they sollicited the King that they might put him to death Zedekiah answered Lo he is in your power the King is not he that can do any thing against you Trav. I confess I have read this example in Junius Brutus and know not which most to wonder at his impudence or his impious knavery The words in the Vulgar Translation which Scaliger esteems the best run thus Ecce in potestate vestra est nam contra vos Rex nihil potest In hoc negotiorum genere scilicet saith Grotius But our brute Author by an unparallell'd wickedness perverts both the sence and words of the Holy Scripture and translates it Ipsis contradicere nulla in re posse And so would make the Sanhedrim so absolute that the King could not contradict them in any thing but we shall discover his imposture by the History it self and practice of Zedekiah even in this very case And it is first certain that the King meant nothing more by this answer than that he left Jeremiah to be Tried by his Judges according to Law And indeed as his affairs stood he was unwilling to displease the Princes in a case which they thought so nearly concerned the good of the people and safety of the King which they believ'd was indanger'd by the discouraging Prophecies of Jeremiah Rex Zedechias says Josephus nè in Principum invidiam tali tempore incurreret voluntati eorum resistens permisit eis ut de Propheta Jeremia quicquid libent facerent lib. 10. c. 10. Yet our Villanous Presbyter is so shameless an Author as to affirm from hence that the Sanhedrim was superiour to the King Rege superiorem q. 3. p. 73. Nay and could judge the King himself Illi Regem judicare possunt which I am confident was never found in the whole History of the Bible But to return to this case We find first that Zedekiah had by his own authority imprison'd Jeremiah ch 30. v. 3. And Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the Court of the prison which was in the King of Judah's house For Zedekiah King of Judah had shut him up Next we may observe that the Princes applied themselves to the King that they might have leave to put the Prophet to death and that in terms respectful enough Jer. 38. 4. Therefore said the Princes unto the King We beseech thee let this man be put to death Now what needed this impertinent and indeed abusive complement to the King if the whole authority was in the Sanhedrim or Princes themselves But to take away all manner of dispute we find not only application made to the King to release Jeremiah and his own order thereupon Ebedmelech went forth out of the Kings house and spake unto the King saying My Lord the King these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet whom thou hast cast into the dungeon c. Then the King commanded Ebedmelech the Egyptian saying Take from hence thirty men with thee and take up Jeremiah the Prophet out of the dungeon before he dies cap. 38. I say besides this we read also in the same chap. That Jeremiah made his address to the King that he might not dye which most assuredly being a Prophet of the Lord he would never have done had it not been in the Kings power to have granted his request or had it been an infringement of the lawful power of the Sanhedrim And thereupon Zedekiah without asking leave of the Elders promis'd him that he should not dye and in terms which sufficiently express his Soveraign authority Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah If I declare it to thee wilt thou not surely put me to death So Zedekiah the King swore secretly to Jeremiah saying As the Lord liveth that made us this soul I will not put thee to death neither will I give thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life v. 15 16. I think these words need no explanation I shall only add this remark to shew the fourberie of our Author which is That in case this story could have pass'd according to his own sense of it yet it would not have prov'd what he design'd it should have done For Zedekiah at that time was not absolute as the former Kings of Judah had been but was tributary to the King of Babylon And when the year was ended c. King Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah King over Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36. 10. Which is confirm'd by Josephus in these words Nebuchadnezzarus exprobat ingratitudinem Zedechiae quod cum à se accepisset regnum accepta potestate abusus esset in authorem beneficii It being then most clear that the Hebrew Kings were absolute or enjoy'd a Soveraign right of power and yet notwithstanding this the property was divided amongst the people who had yet no share in the right of Government but what was subordinate I must conclude that Plato Redivivus is no less impudent and false than his master Junius Brutus was when he affirms universally that if the people had a share in the property they had a share in the Government or where the King had no companions in the Soveraign power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of lands Mer. Sir So many men amongst us have asserted an Independent right of power in the Sanhedrim that I cannot yet get off from that opinion unless you can shew me somewhat more particular than yet you have done concerning their institution and that they receiv'd not their power from God but from man which in such case will make them subordinate and subjects Trav. I have already told you that at the request of Moses God was pleas'd to admit of such a Council or Court of Judicature and that then they receiv'd their power not only from the hand of Moses but even from that power which Moses himself had and no new power immediately from God But if this be not plain enough I will offer you another passage by which we shall determine the two main points First whence the Court of Seventy Elders received their authority And secondly How large it was In the first of Deut. v. 13. you shall find Moses thus speaking to the people Take ye wise men and understanding and known amongst the Tribes and I will make them rulers over you So I took the chief of the Tribes wise men c. and I charg'd the Judges
us Trav. Sir you may easily believe that if the people were Masters of the Government they would not fail to give themselves large proportions of the lands But this made their Government so irregular and subject to so many inconveniencies that instead of being setled according to the exact rules of the Polities as our Author thinks it was most insupportable and not capable of any long subsistence And in effect we see both their name and government so totally extinct that those people who possessed almost all Europe are not now to be found in any part of it Such was the case of the once flourishing Kingdom of the Jews which when the Seditious people as Menahemus Eliazarus and others endeavoured to set up a popular Government was utterly destroy'd and of two such mighty Nations nothing is left but some few wandring remains or old rustick monuments which serve only to testifie that they once have been I confess had the authority of the Gothick Kings been Absolute and Independent I know no great inconvenience that their distribution of the lands could have produced Yet that too ought to be done with discretion and good consideration or many mischiefs and ruine in the end may ensue To this purpose our Author I thank him hath put us in mind of a memorable example For Plutarch tells us that Cleomenes King of Sparta endeavouring to make himself Absolute slew the Ephori And the better to ingratiate himself with the people divided the lands amongst them But being desperately attack'd by Antigonus King of Macedon before he had well established his Soveraign Authority he could not raise money to pay either his Mercenary soldiers or his own Citizens Whence for want of that power he was totally routed Lacedemon sack'd and the whole Kingdome became a Province to the Macedonians Mer. Without doubt many Contingencies may happen in which an Absolute Power in the Prince may prove the greatest security to a Kingdom against a Foreign Invasion For whilst the people are consulted withal or intreated to contribute toward the necessary expences of war by an untimely frugality and indiscreet husbandry the whole may be lost I remember a story very apposite to this purpose in the wars between the Greeks and Turks under Constantine the Fifteenth and last Christian Emperour of Greece The numerous Army of the Turks had so wasted the besieged in Constantinople that Constantine had no hopes of preserving the City but by a supply of Mercenary Soldiers To procure these a considerable sum of mony was requisite But the brutal and covetous Greeks would not be prevail'd upon to part with any thing at present though they had no other hopes to preserve all for the future So the unfortunate Emperour was slain and the City taken and sack'd from top to bottom with all the insolences that might be expected from a Pagan Conquerour Among the Greeks the Admiral Notaras was accounted the most rich and had been the most solicited by the Emperour to prevent by a chearful contribution and his good example the fatal hour of the Grecian Empire But cursed avarice doth often blind our reason so much that we are forc'd to yield That to our enemies which might have once preserv'd our friends And so it happened For Notaras burying all his Treasure whilest the Siege endured at last to preserve his life and complement the New Emperour Mahomet the second he raised his dead money from the grave and presenting iâ— with himself at the Emperour's feet offer'd the one to secure the other But the generous Turk looking sternly upon him Thou dog said he I take thy Treasure not as thy gift but as my due by right of conquest Which hadst thou in time given to thy poor Prince whom thou hast perfidiously betray'd thou mightest have preserv'd both thy Country and thy King Go then with a mischief and receive the just reward due to thy Treachery So he commanded him to be executed with no less severity than if he had been a Traytor even to Mahomet himself But Sir Begging your pardon for this Digression let us return to the Goths of whom I think you were saying That they have left little behind them which retains the memory that they once have been Pray what say you to those Tenures which are yet extant in many parts of Europe Were they not of the Gothick institution and do they not sufficiently testifie not only that they were but that they were also a wise people since their Government has remain'd so long after them Trav. Sir I perceive you use the word Government promiscuously as indeed our Author himself does Sometimes he makes it signifie the Supreme right of power sometimes the Subordinate and sometimes neither but only the effects of Government as in this case Now though these Tenures have remained in some Kingdoms yet they prove little of the wisdom and nothing of the excellent Government of those Goths For the last it is either totally lost or else so changed that it is not any more to be known For I do not hear or read of any such precarious Kingdom as theirs was extant at this day in Europe Nor is it probable there should for as hath been already observed such a constitution is so irregular and contrary to the nature of Government that it cannot continue long in that neutrality For either the people will take all the power into their hands whence some little Commonwealths have sometimes sprung up or else the King will by degrees become absolute and independent such as most of the Monarchs are at present throughout the whole world And for their Tenures you will easily find how they were continued if you consider that many little Kingdoms have been built upon the ruines of the declining Roman Empire which had been overrun by the Goths and Vandalls Roman paulatim coepit minui jam gentes quae Romanorum provincias non regna habitabant Râ—ges creare jam ex illorum potestate subduci in proprii arbitrii authoritate stare discunt These new Princes thought nothing more conducible to the establishment of their new Governments than to make as little innovation as they could but rather leave the conquered who were afterwards to become their Subjects in the same condition as they found them And those Tenures having no great matter of ill in them provided their Lords had no right in the Soveraign Authority as they had not many of them have continued with little alteration to this day This Cousin is I think sufficient to prove that contrary to our Author's proposition most Kings which have been in the world though they had an absolute and an independent right of power yet they have permitted the Lands to be divided and in the possession of the people And that though in the mixt Monarchy of the barbarous Goths and Vandalls some part of the power as well as possessions were in the Commonalty yet that is no reason to us why
for personal estate the subjects may enjoy it in the largest proportion without being able to invade the Empire and that the subjects with their Money cannot invade the Crown This is the first time that I remember to have observed where lay the weak side of invincible Gold Indeed till now I should have laid the odds for money against land and I am the more confirm'd in that opinion because I remember very well that in an election of a Knight for the Shire a certain money'd Merchant not having three hundred pound per Annum lands in the world was able nevertheless to carry the Election against a worthy Gentleman of an ancient Family who had at that time above four thousand pounds per Annum lands of inheritance And it was thought that the force of money procured the advantage Many such cases I suppose have happened in other Counties which argument sure will hold in a Kingdom as well as in a County since the former is composed of the latter But our Author who has the legislative power in his head makes there what card trump he thinks sit And from his unerring judgment there is no appeal Merch. I think Plato is mistaken But Sir you have slipt a remark a little before this and it is that Modern writers are of opinion that Aegypt till of late was not a Monarchy and the only conjecture which he produces is that originally all Arts and Sciences had their rise in Aegypt which they think very improbable to have been under a Monarchy Trav. O silly truly for our Authors reputations sake I thought to have passed by so childish a conjecture I will not go about to prove that really all Arts and Sciences had their rise in that Countrey because our Author hath confessed it Nor tell you that Aegypt was an absolute Monarchy many hundred years before because I have already given you good authorities for it Neither will I trouble you with a long Catalogue of most excellent men for all manner of learning who lived as well under the elder Monarchies as later ones of Rome Germany Spain France England and many others Let our Authors own profound Learning rise up in judgment in this case against himself since it is plain that his vast politick knowledge sprang up bloom'd brought forth fruit withered and decayed and all under a Monarchical Government For whether we consider him in the days of King Charles the I st or under Oliver or at Rome or since his present Majesties happy Restoration he hath still sucked in a Monarchical Air. I do not hear that all was effected at Geneva though most probably the first sowre Grapes came from thence which have set his teeth on edge ever since Merch. Indeed I think so sober a politician might have spared such a little malicious remark But to go on he tells us p. 45. That Rome was the best and most glorious Government that the Sun ever saw Trav. Our Statesman hath coupled best and glorious together as Poulterers use to do a lean and a fat Rabbit that one may help off with the other But his vulgar cheat must not pass For glorious we will admit of that Epithete and good Authors give us the reason how it came to be so which is not much to our purpose But for best we must examine that a little farther I could cite many Authorities to prove that the Roman Commonwealth was one of the worst Governments that ever subsisted so long But because I would speak somewhat to our noble Venetian who ought to have read his own Authors concerning Government at home before he came to judge of another abroad I will refer him for full satisfaction in this point to the Discorsi politici of Paulus Paruta a Nobleman and Senator of Venice and Procurator of Saint Marco Who in his first discourse comparing several Antient Commonwealths with that of Venice when he comes to Rome he tells us plainly That the Sun never saw a more confused State That it was really no regular government at all and that its chief default proceeded from the exorbitant power of the people Whence Tacitus calls it lib. 3. Corruptissima Respublica Now Sir if this noble Senator who also had been Ambassador abroad understood any thing of Government as I believe he did even more than the English Gent. Young Venetian and learned Doctor put all together then we must conclude that our Author is mistaken But since it is not the first time we will put it to account Mer. Well Sir he saith next p. 52. That Moses Theseus and Romulus were founders of Democracies What say you to that Trav. If I mistake not he tells us the same thing in p. 28. 32 69. In some of which he calls their Democracy in plain English a Common-wealth For Moses I have already prov'd his authority to have been Independent even in the highest measure upon any but God and that in the exercise none ever us'd it more arbitrarily witness the severe punishments against the Idolaters when he came down from Mount Sinai Where without any farther Ceremonies or legal trial he call'd the Sons of Levi to him and said Put every man his sword by his side and go in from gate to gate throughout the Camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and there fell of the people that day about 3000. men Many other instances there are of his Despotical power besides the Text saith in plain words that Moses was King in Jeshurun For the calling together the Congregation of the Lord by sound of Trumpet all men who ever read the Bible know that it was generally to tell them some message from God reproach them for their misdeeds exhort them to amendment and such like But I am confident they never did any one act which proceeded from a right of power while Moses liv'd Nay on the contrary when the Seditious Princes Corah Datban and Abiram as also Aaron and Miriam murmured against Moses's Soveraign authority being desirous to have shar'd with him in the Government we find that God punished their Sedition most severely and the two last escaped the Justice of Gods sentence only through the great intercession of Moses Who knows not that his Praesecti Jethroniani were only subordinate Judges appointed by his own order and for his own ease All which besides the common consent of learned men makes it clear that Moses held the Supreme Civil power wholly in himself call him King or Captain or what you please Next Theseus being own'd after his long Travels by his father Aegeus found Attica Tributary to Minos King of Candia and the Kingdom divided in it self into several little Burgs which set up for so many particular several Governments Theseus therefore being a discreet Prince endeavour'd to reduce them to their former obedience by peaceable means To that purpose
he perswades them to unite under one Government knowing that they would become thereby like a bundle of Arrows much the stronger And that the name of Tyrant might not affright them or the loss of their fond power and freedom discourage them he promised to abate so much of his own Soveraign right of Government as to consult with them and take their opinions in weighty affairs as he did in a common Hall or meeting place called Asty In this method things went prosperously on until one Mnesteus a factious and an ambitious Prince of the house of Ericthonius insinuating to the people that Theseus intended at last to enslave them he caused the Athenians to rebell Theseus retired to the Island Sâ—yros where he ended his days Mnesteus usurped the Kingdom but having held his ill gotten honour but a little while the sons of Theseus were remitted to the Throne of their father and Theseus was ever after adored amongst them as a God Now if there be any thing in this story which makes for our Author much good may it do him And lastly Romulus cannot sure be said to have instituted the Common-wealth of Rome any more than Charles the Fifth the Republick of Holland from whose successors those people rebelled Tacitus says most clearly That Rome was governed in the beginning by Kings and that their liberty was procured by L. Brutus Vrbem Romam à principio reges habuere Libertatem consulatum L. Brutus instituit And to shew the extent of his power he tells us Ann. lib. 3. that Romulus governed them according to his will Romulus ut libitum nobis imperaverat Plutarch calls the Government all along a Monarchy and after Romulus had instituted the Senate composed of the Patricii or chief Citizens whensoever he appointed them to meet they were obliged says he to observe his orders and commands without making any reply Constat initio civitatis Reges omnem potestatem habuisse says Pomponius That in the beginning of the City of Rome their Kings enjoyed intirely the whole Soveraign Authority But not to multiply Authorities to prove such vulgar truths I shall refer you to our Authors chief Divine I mean the Divine Machiavel as he stiles him more than once his words are full and very intelligible where he calls all three Princes and their Governments Kingdoms Verum ut ad eos qui non fortuna sed singulari virtute in Principes sunt evecti veniamus speaking all the while of Kings excellentiores dico fuisse Mosen Cyrum Romulum Theseum and again which puts all out of dispute At qui Cyrum reliquos qui Regna sibi pepererunt constituerunt c. And farther of Romulus quo Romano imperio potiretur de Principe ca. 6. And yet Plato Red. hath the confidence to affirm p. 31. that Romulus himself was no more than the first officer of the Common-wealth and chosen as the Doge of Venice is for life But if Plato's Divine were not an ignorant Ass then our Author is certainly a very impudent impostor Merch. Indeed Cousin I have great reason to believe that Plato's authorities and examples are as false as his principles absurd Besides supposing these great men had instituted popular Governments as I am fully convinced they did not what doth that concern us Is there no difference between the foundation of a new Government and the continuation of an old one Is there no distinction between the Roman State in its infancy which extended not for several years above fifteen Miles beyond their Walls and the Empire of great Britain and Ireland We know that many priviledges may be granted to the people at first for encouragement which afterwards may be inconsistent with the safety of the Government And is there no regard to be had to different circumstances but let us proceed In p. 62. we read That it is not dangerous to a City to have their people rich but to have such a power in the Governing part of the Empire as should make those who manage the affairs of the Commonwealth depend upon them which came afterwards to be that which ruined their libertie and which the Gracchi endeavoured to prevent when it was too late What means he by this Trav. Sir We will preserve his sence but giving other names to the Country People and Governours we shall see more plainly how it runs Let us say then that it is not dangerous for England to have their people rich even in land for he speaks immediately before of the Romans purchasing lands but to have such a share in the right of Government as should make the King who manages the affairs of the Kingdom depend upon them methinks it is very clear and it has ever been my judgment that the people might have what proportion their industry could procure them in the lands provided they did not pretend to any share in the Soveraign authority Mer. But this is directly contrary to his own beloved Aphorism Sure there must be somewhat more in it or else you will make him contradict himself Trav. Faith Sir I cannot help that Truth will come out sometimes in spite of the Devil Nor know I how to mend his sense except I should make him appear at the same time the most false partial and prejudiced scribler that ever wrote Mer. No matter Sir let us if we can preserve his sense which I believe he values himself most upon and let his honestly and honour take their chance Trav. Let us then see what follows Which says he came afterwards to be that which ruin'd their liberty and which the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent Pray Cousin what is the antecedent to which in these two places Mer. Sure Sir that is most plain and according to my understanding it is that power in the governing part of the Empire c. Trav. You are right without doubt and I dare affirm that Q. Ennius himself could not make any other construction of it And if so then the whole sentence runs thus It was not dangerous to the Commonwealth of Rome to have their Subjects rich but it was dangerous that the Subject should have such a power in the governing part of the Empire as should make their Governours depend upon them which power of the people in the governing part of the Empire came afterwards to be that which ruin'd the peoples liberty And which power for all the world knows that and in this place is a conjunction copulative the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent c. Now Sir the first part of this Sentence is most really sound doctrine and truth though diametrically opposite to Plato's grand proposition upon which undeniable Aphorism as he says he is to build most of his subsequent reasoning For indeed the people though never so rich are by no means to be trusted with a right of power but as I have said rather the contrary lest they should confound government or set it upon its head with its feet uppermost And
specious design Who perceiving at length the ambition and irregular proceedings of their great Patron the injustice of their pretensions and the little good the restitution of these lands would do themselves they totally deserted him Insomuch that Caius when his fatal hour drew near fell down before the Statue of Diana praying That the people who had so basely abandon'd him might never enjoy that liberty which he endeavour'd to have obtain'd for them Mer. I am much satisfi'd with this story and am apt to believe that many of our own worthy Patriots who cry up so much for Liberty and Property and the interest of the people intend more really their own particular advancement yet nevertheless you see our Author calls these men Illustrious and renowned persons their actions and undertakings Heroick Trav. He doth so and undoubtedly he would say the same thing if he durst not only of Brutus but of the Dominican Friar Ravillac and Hugh Peters himself or whoever else it was that murder'd our late Soveraign But you have heard the opinion of Florus with whom Plutarch agrees and all the ancient Authors that I have yet met withal And to conclude Tacitus who seems to have been friend enough to a Democratical Government calls them disturbers of the people Hinc Gracchi Saturnini turbatores plebis Ann. l. 3. Merch. T is well We come now to Agis and Cleomenes Who were they Trav. They were Kings of Sparta and their Designs and Fates much the same with the Gracchi The difference was chiefly this that the former being already Kings they endeavoured by the same means that is to say by abolition of debts or novae tabulae distribution of lands and favour of the people to procure to themselves an absolute authority against the usurped power of the Ephori The Gracchi being truly Subjects followed the same course to usurp the Empire but against the lawful Authority of the Senate This is only to be observed of Cleomenes that at the same time when he endeavoured to possess the Soveraign power he thought it nevertheless no Solecism in the Politicks to give the property of the Lands among the people In a word the same wheel troublesome and dangerous ambition moved equally all four against which Plutarch inveighs most severely in his introduction to the Lives of those Spartan Kings Merch. And may all ambitious disturbers of our peace meet with the same Catastrophe Next our Author tells us that alteration of the property is the Vnica corruptio politica Trav. I grant it Sir if you apply property to the right of power in Government but not if restrained to Lands as hath been already proved And for the favourable opinion which he hath of confusion or Anarchy may himself be confounded in this world I mean by his own loose principles and ungovernable unquiet Spirit Merch. What say you of the Laws and Government of Switzerland and the Low Countries Trav. Little Sir their Laws and Governments are as notoriously known as their Rebellions and several Authors have writ fully of both Merch. Very good we come next to the most famous Republick of Venice where amongst other things vulgar enough our Nobleman tells us that the great difficulty in the administration of that Republick hath been to regulate their Nobility and to bridle their Faction and ambition which can alone breed a disease in the vital part of their Government And this they do by most severe Laws and a very vigorous execution of them Trav. Right But because he hath not been pleased to let you know what those Laws are give me leave to inform you I shall not speak of little Mutineers those poor Rogues are easily cut off But come to the great and noble Villains and concerning such their Law is this when any eminent man whose relations and dependences are commonly very great shall using as yet no other weapon than his tongue defame the Government by calumnies and opprobrious Speeches and thereby endeavour to draw off first the affection and next the obedience of the people to their lawful Magistrate and that the Government thinks not fit to call him publickly to account lest some disturbance might happen through the interest of his friends or least the municipal Laws of the State might not be sufficient to reach his life for any particular thing though his complicated ills make him obnoxious in general to the Government and dangerous in it or that a perjured Jury should acquit him which would make him more malicious than before knowing full well that when a man becomes so purged the Devil enters into him again with nine Spirits worse than himself I say under such circumstances their method of proceeding is this First information being given to some of the Consiglio di Dieci and sufficient evidence concerning matter of fact his process is made which requires very little time and by majority of votes he is condemned to die the offender being all this while ignorant of what is doing and at liberty as at other times This done the business comes into the hands of the Inquisâ—tori del Stato who are three annual officers chosen out of the Dieci as also the Gao or Capo di Dieci who are also three but chosen monthly and out of the same body These Inquisitori are to see the Sentence executed which is left to their discretion and which they manage according to the circumstances of the offender If there be no difficulty in taking him at home then the way is this the Inquisitori or any two of them send for a file of Musketeers or more who accompanied with an Officer Confessor and Executioner and in the most quiet time of the night they force if need be the house of the offender where being apprehended he is acquainted at the same instant both with his offence and punishment It is too late and in vain to plead or dispute but being carried away into a Gondola prepared to receive him they put off accompanied with another toward the Sea and being come to the place they design the offender having received absolution from his Confessor they place him upon the midst of a Plank laid between the two Gondola's with a Stone about his neck then putting off their Boat the criminal falls for ever forgotten to the bottom of the Sea nor is there a man in the whole state of Venice who dares ever after inquire what is become of this Great Nobleman sometimes in such case they are strangled But if the offender happens to be a person having a great retinue as many have of Bravos and that the forcing of his Palace may prove troublesom and make too great a noise from the opposition which the officer may meet withal from the number of the Domesticks then the Inquisitori send for some of the most daring and notorious of the Banditi and at the same time accompany the message with a pass or safe-conduct both for his coming to Venice and return Upon
away the Kings Prerogative in the Affirmative Yet notwithstanding this and ten times more that may be said to this purpose our King is advised and perswaded nay almost necessitated as our Author would have it not only to quit some One of his Prerogatives but to make short work to release and give them up all at once In the next place let us consider Plato's excellent new model it self and here like a wise Politician he hath made Three co-ordinate powers in being at the same time that is to say King Lords and Commons I confess for the King he says little of him and with great reason for indeed he signifies nothing more than a Cypher which as in Arithmetick is only to make the Commons more valuable But to do our Author right he hath yet a farther use to make of this his otherwise useless Prince that is to say whilest neither his own Right nor his Power nor our Laws can secure himself his Name nevertheless is to preserve these his Masters With that they hope to prevent all opposition and civil wars at home For should they forceably depose him they justly apprehend that his Loyal Subjects in England would endeavour to revenge such an insupportable wrong Nor can they believe that the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland would again tamely submit their Necks to the servile yoke of a few ambitious English Commoners or that foreign Princes themselves would even for their own securities sake quietly and unconcern'd countenance this horrid injustice and outrage done to the sacred dignity of Kings But if they can perswade his Majesty willingly to depose himself and at the same time disinherit his Heirs and Successors they imagine that none can pretend to disapprove much less blame or impute to them the volunry act of a King For as Volenti non fit injuria and by consequence no offence in them so they will certainly reserve to themselves the honour of punishing in the King as their master-piece and last act of justice the Treason which he shall have committed against himself To facilitate all this our Author hath taken from his Majesty his Militia and his Revenue that is men and monâ—y which are the strength and sinews of Power and in the Commoners he hath plac'd the Royal authority of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving themselves And left the King in this miserable condition should have yet any hopes left even of securing his own Person he hath taken from him the power of making his own Officers and bestowing those imployments which have always depended upon the Regal authority Nay the Lords themselves are no more to receive their Honours from the Fountain of all Honour but must lick the dust from the shooes of their once obsequious vassals So our poor Master having nothing now to give must lose the hopes even of a grateful friend who in his extremity might at least wish him well and speak a good word for him to his insolent Governours Mer. But Sir our Author leaves most of these things in the disposition of the Parliament by which he tells us that he ever understood the King Lords and Commons so that neither his Militia nor Revenue can be said to be so absolutely taken from himself as granted to the Parliament in general of which he is still to be the head Trav. Ah Cousin there is deadly poison in this his varnished treacherous Cup and you will easily perceive it when you consider Plato cares not so much that the Militia should be in the power of the Commons as out of the King For whilest the King cannot dispose of it without the consent of his Lower House judge you whether they will ever agree to the raising any force which they shall not themselves command If then any difference arise upon that or any other point which unavoidably and designedly will happen then are the Commoners become immediately masters of all For what can the King do though joyn'd with the House of Lords without a right of command or force against a multitude and that so unequal too that if the House of Commons in Parliament represent the whole Nation as they pretend they do then are they at least ten thousand men against one though all the Nobility be included with the King The necessary consequence of all this must be that if on the one hand the King and Lords agree with the Commons in all things then the Commons govern more absolutely than if there were neither the one nor the other because there is no pretence against them On the other hand if they in any thing differ from the Commons then undoubtedly the disagreeing Lords as formerly shall be turned out of doors the King set aside and the Votes made by the House of Commons Jan. 4. 1648 revived and confirmed which being very short but plain I shall here repeat First That the people under God are the original of all just power Secondly That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being chosen by and representing the people have the Supreme Authority of this Nation Thirdly That whatever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons of England assembled in Parliament hath the force of a Law Fourthly That all the people of this Nation are included thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers be not had thereunto What think you now Cousin of these four Votes even whilst the King and Lords were yet in being Do they not look as if they designed a Commonwealth or rather to establish an arbitrary Tyrannical power in the House of Commons and yet their propositions all along to the King were the same which Plato hath again offered us that is leaving the Militia the publick revenue nomination of officers and such like to the Parliament by which was always meant King Lords and Commons This is the politick web which our Author pretends to have spun out of his own shallow brains and indeed it is so very wondrous thin that if our present Statesmen could not with half an eye see through it I should be apt to agree with our Author p. 22. that they ought in conscience to excuse themselves from that sublime imployment and betake themselves to callings more suitable to their capacities as Shoomakers Tailors and such other mechanick professions Merch. Sir the Sun at noon day is never more clear than that he designs at best a Commonwealth And indeed where three co-ordinate powers are in being at the same time it is impossible they should continue long in that state but some one or two must certainly in time over balance and get the advantage of the other I think Lucan confirmed this long ago when he said Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit And the King having neither power strength money nor officers it is ten thousand to one as you observe on the Commons side who are actually possessed of all Pray therefore proceed
Fourth of Edward the Third and the words of it are these It is accorded that a Parliament shall be holden every year once and more often if need be Now Sir you must observe that this Act was made whilst the King was but Nineteen years of age and both himself and Kingdom under the care of Twelve Governours His Mother Queen Isabel and Roger Mortimer very powerful the Governours of the Pupil King divided amongst themselves and many other pressing affairs of the Nation oblig'd most people to propose that expedient of frequent Parliaments as the most probable means to secure the peace and prosperity of the Kingdom at least until the King should come of riper years and thereby many differences be reconciled After this in the Thirty sixth year of his Reign he called a Parliament and wanting money as generally he did the Parliament would grant nothing until an Act passed for maintenance of former Articles and Statutes there expressed And that for redress of divers mischiefs and grievances which daily happen a Parliament shall be holden every year as another time was ordained by Statute These are the two Statutes intended by our Author when he tells us that the Statute of Edward the first was confirmed by that glorious Prince Edward the third Whereas in truth they were both made by the same King and both in a great measure revoked in his own time Having declared after the making this last Act that he yielded to it only to serve his own turn This Sir is the matter of Fact upon which our Author builds his great pretensions to the old constitutions of Annual Parliaments The first Act was made whilst the King was very young the second when he wanted money and had Twenty six shillings and eight pence granted him upon every sack of wool transported for three years And both first and second Acts were broken by several intermissions before he died Besides we must make this remark that a Parliament seldom met without giving the King some money which might encourage those Kings to assemble them oftner than lately they have done But the truth is Annual Parliaments were lookt upon as so great a grievance to the Nation that we find that about the Tenth year of Richard the Second his Successor it was thought a great Prerogative in the King that he might call a Parliament once a year And both Houses appointed the Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundell Bishop of Ely to acquaint the King that by an old Statute the King once a year might lawfully summon his Court of Parliament for reformation of corruptions and enormities within the Realm And if we consider with our selves we shall find that if yearly Parliaments were imposed upon us they would become grievances equally insupportable as to have no Parliaments at all For if the Knights Citizens and Burgesses be chosen out of the Countrey Gentlemen and Merchants inhabiting those Countries where they are elected as sure they ought to be what inconvenience if not ruin must it bring upon their affairs when they shall be forced to run every year a hundred or two hundred Miles from their particular domestick affairs to serve in a formal Parliament in which it may be the greatest business will be to make business for the next Indeed for idle persons who live about Town and have nothing to do but to scrible knavish politicks to the disturbance of honest men such a constitution might do well enough if they could get to be chosen members But we find from experience and History that in those days when Ambition and Faction were not so much in vogue as at present men were so far from making parties to get into the Parliament that many Commoners and Lords too have petitioned and been excused their attendance The King 's Queen's and Prince's Servants have stood upon their priviledge of exemption So James Barner was discharged by the King's command Quia erat de retinentia Regis 7. R. 2 and the Lord de Vessey in Edward the Fourths time obtained Licence not to serve in Parliament during his life Rex concessit Henrico Bromflet Dom. de Vessey quod ipse durante vita sit exoneratus de veniendo ad Parl. Besides the very Writ of Summons shews that in the original institution and design of Parliaments a frequent meeting could not be necessary For they were only to treat concilium impendere de magnis arduis negotiis Now God help us if every year should produce such magna ardua negotia such difficult and weighty affairs that the King with his Judges and â—rivy Council could not determine them without assembling his great Council the Parliament I confess in our Authors Chimerical model I am perswaded our circumstances would be bad enough but I thank God we are not gotten there yet Thus you see Sir that this grievance in not having annual Parliaments is become no grievance at all Mer. I begin Cousin to lose all manner of respect for this mistaken Mountebank For I perceive notwithstanding his great words and pretences all is but wind emptinâ—ss and cheat Having therefore fully satisfieâ— me concerning our liberties properties and Parliaments pray forget not to say somewhat of our Religion Trav. Sir I shall not presume to meddle with the Doctrinal part of any Religion that being none of my Province Nor shall I say much concerning the Ceremonial part or discipline of our own that is to say the Church of England It is sufficient to mind you that both the Doctrine and Discipline in Church Government have been established and confirm'd by several Acts of Parliament and Statutes Which Parliaments being the most Soveraign power that our Author himself pretends to set up amongst us we ought all to acquiesce in and be concluded by what they have done until an equal authority shall repeal those Acts or otherwise determine concerning us Mer. There is no objection can be made against this answer But Sir since the difference in our Religion seems manifestly to occasion most of our troubles why may not the King by his own authority dispence with the penal part of these Laws or grant a toleration especially to Protestant Dissenters or encourage an Act of Parliament for uniting them into the Church of England or else why might not the same Church release some part of the rigour of the Discipline and Ceremony since 't is agreed on all hands that the observance or non-observance of them are not points necessary or absolutely conducing to Salvation Trav. Cousin I shall answer you all these questions as plain as I can And first I shall never believe that true and unfeigned Religion especially amongst men where the Doctrine agrees is ever the real cause of any troubles disturbance or disobedience to lawful authority such as is that which produces an Act of Parliament even in our Authors sence being so contrary to the Doctrine and Principles of Christian Religion that I may confidently affirm where
whole Nation when joyn'd with so considerable a part as the Church of England they were both overcome by the Dissenters it was morally impossible Besides they had generally taken the Oath of Allegiance which for ought I can hear they have not broken generally I suppose for if there be any of them who refuse the Oath of Allegeance I look upon them as out of the Kings Protection and little better or full as dangerous as open enemies Nor can I imagine what other Government they could or were ever suppos'd to introduce contrary to that which was then establish'd and which they swore to maintain I am apt enough to believe that they might hope for some ease or exemption from the rigour of the penâ—l Laws which neither you nor I can blame in them if they had desir'd Mer. But though they have taken the Oath of Allegeance yet you see that they will not be prevail'd upon to take the Oath of Supremacy And you know that according to our Law the King is no less head of the Ecclesiastical than of the Civil Government Trav. True Sir But this is as much an argument against the Dissenters as the Papists For it is not a greater crime in them nor prejudice to the State to tolerate men who by the principles of their Religion are taught to submit their Consciences to another Spiritual guide in Spiritual matters as many Soveraign Princes themselves do at this day than those who owning the King to be Supreme head of the Church by their words disown him by their actions that is in not obeying his Laws or Rebelling against him as such Besides it is well known that the general opinion of the Popish Recusants the Laity I mean concerning the Pope's Supremacy hath no ill influence upon our Civil Government which is that which I chiefly intend in this discourse but that they think themselves indispensably oblig'd to defend our Lawful Kings and their Civil Authority not only against all temporal powers whatsoever but even against the Pope himself Mer. This Sir I have heard much controverted and the contrary opinion affirm'd by some of their own Writers that is to say That the Pope may and doth Excommunicate heretick Kings as he calls them By which act their Subjects are no more bound to pay them their obedience nay and can absolve the people from their Oath of Allegeance and impower them to depose their natural and lawful Prince and set up some other in his stead Now Sir this is such a doctrine as makes the Papists uncapable of ever being trusted under any Protestant Government Trav. I confess Sir I have heard that some private men have maintain'd some such erroneous and perniciouâ— Principles and flattering the Pope have endeavoured to raise his power to a much sublimer pitch than ever Christ himself or any of his Apostles pretended it should arrive But Sir as Temporal Princes have been ever usurping upon one another and by most unchristian ways sacrificed the innocent blood of many thousands of men for the promoting their own greatness and satisfying their ambitious designs so these Spiritual Emperours have follow'd too much the ill examples of Temporal Princes And being it may be more solicitous to extend their power than encrease the number of true believers have perverted the good use of St. Peters Keys and have rather opened by them the door of dissention and discord upon earth than the gates of the Heavenly Paradise For some years these holy Fathers exercised their arms against one another and how much blood and horrid troubles the dispute between the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of Constantinople concerning Primacy hath cost Christendom is sufficiently recorded in History I may add farther that this their contention became at last the ruine of the Greek Empire but hitherto the Temporal Princes enjoy'd their rights and Prerogatives undisturb'd until Hildebrand otherwise called Gregory the seventh arrogated to himself a Soveraign authority over all Christian Kings and Emperours as may be seen at large in the History of Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany who was the first unfortunate example of the Papal usurpation which is confirm'd by a learned Roman Catholick Bishop and one who lived in the Reign of Fred. the first his words are these Lego relego saith he Romanorum Regum Imperatorum gesta nunquam invenio quenquam eorum ante hunc à Romano Pontifice excommunicatum vel regno privatum nisi forte quis pro Anathemate habendum ducat quod Philippus ad breve tempus à Romano Episcopo inter poenitentes collocatus Theodosius à beato Ambrosio propter cruentam caedem à liminibus Ecclesiae sequestratus sit Ottofrising c. 35. After this several encroachments were made upon other Princes and the Popes making use as well of St. Paul's Sword as St. Peter's Keys reduc'd most of them under their obedience and as the same Author expresses it destroy'd them by that very power which they had first receiv'd from the benevolence of the Emperours themselves seeming to imitate therein the Prophet David who first overcame the Philistine by the providence of God and then cut off his head with his own Sword Videntur culpandi Sacerdotes per omnia qui regnum suo gladio quem ipsi à regum habent gratia ferire conentur nisi forte David imitari cogitent qui Philistinum priâ—o virtute Dei stravit postmodum prâ—prio gladio jugulavit Now Sir after the Popes were in possession of these great Prerogatives and had perswaded the people to contribute as well to their own as their Princes slavery by granting them this universal right of power it is no wonder if some of their own Clergy have endeavoured by false arguments to maintain this usurp'd authority But Cousin it is well known that this is now become no more than an old antiquated title and gives him no right over Soveraign Princes at this day It is true those Princes who submitted themselves to the constitutions of the Council of Treâ—t permit the Pope to exercise some Spiritual Jurisdiction in their Kingdoms But it is universally and publickly declared that the Popes have no Civil or Temporal Authority over Soveraign Princes nor can they by their Spiritual power or authoritate clavium Ecclesiae depose any King or absolve any Subject from their Faith Obedience or Oath of Allegeanâ—e Mer. Can you give an instance of 〈…〉 made by any Popish Kings and consented to by the Roman Clergy Trav. Yes Sir and that so fully that there can remain no scruple or difficulty and it is by the most Christian King of France and eldest son of the Roman Church and a severe persecutor of the Protestant Religion I will give you the words of the Declaration it self as far as it concerns this particular that you may the better judge your self of the truth It is Declared by the Gallick Church Primum beato Petro ejusque successoribus Christi Vicariis ipsique
Ecclesiae rerum spiritualium ad aeternam salutem pertinentium non autem civilium temporalium à Deo traditam potestatem c. Reges ergo Principes in temporalibus nulli Ecclesiasticae potestati Dei ordinatione subjici neque authoritate clavium Ecclesiae directe vel indirecte deponi aut illorum subditos eximi à side atque obedientia ac praestito fidelitatis Sacramento solvi posse Hancque sententiam publicâ— tranquillitati necessariam nec minus Ecclesiae quam Imperio utilem â—t verbo Dei patrum traditioni Sanctorum exemplis consonam omnino retinendam Which is thus Englished It is Declared First that the Power of Spiritual things and such as concern eternal Salvation but not of Civil or Temporal affairs was delivered by God to the blessed Peter and his Successors Christ's Vicars and to the Church it self c. Kings therefore and Princes in Temporal affairs are not Subjected by the appointment of God to any Ecclesiastical power nor can they be directly or indirectly depos'd by the authority of the Keys of the Church nor can their Subjects be freed or absolv'd from their Faith and Obedience and their Oath of Fidelity And let this Sentence necessary to the publick tranquillity nor less profitable for the Church than State be irrevocable as agreeing with the Word of God the Tradition of Fathers and the Examples of the Saints or holy men This Sir is the first article in the Declaration of the French Clergy which is asserted registred and confirmed by the whole Vniversity of Paris the Sorâ—one and Faculties des Droits Civil and Canon as may be seen fully in the Edit du Roy sur la Declaration faitte par le Clergie de France de ces sentimens touchant la puissance Ecclesiastique and published this present year 1683. Now Sir in my opinion this so solemn and national declaration together with the concurrence and constant profession of all the English Roman Catholicks that I have met with doth sure by much overbalance the writings of any private men or Jesuits whatsoever And such Principles although they be most erroneous and most damnable yet when we come to examine the case impartially between the very Jesuits and our Dissenters even as it relates to these most horrid positions we shall find these Dissenters have so far outgone the Jesuits themselves in the Doctrine of Deposing Heretick Princes that is to say Princes who differ from the Church of Rome in Fundamentals or Speculative Doctrines which they believe absolutely necessary to Salvation that they have dared to maintain publickly the Doctrine of Deposing even Protestant Princes and their own natural and most lawful Soveraigns and absolving their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegeance and this not for any difference in the Doctrinal part which is absolutely necessary to Salvation but for Discipline only and Church Government which right of Government is so inherent to the Imperial Crown of England that it makes up and is one of the constituent parts of it And that these are the very principles of our Dissenters I refer you for ample satisfaction to their own very words where and when delivered as they have been Collected and Published by the care and diligence of the most worthy Mr. L'Estrange in his Dissenters Sayings Now when our Dissenters shall think fit to make so Solemn and Publick a Declaration as the Papists have done at Paris against the Doctrine of Deposing Kings and absolving Subjects as is before recited I shall be as ready to do the Dissenters justice in that particular as I have now done to the Papists Merch. Sir I perceive you are a very good advocate for the Papists and indeed I must needs confess that I am abundantly satisfied with those arguments which you have produced in their favour and do heartily wish they could as well comply with the Spiritual as I am perswaded they will live peaceably and quietly under the Civil Government And as to the present question of Toleration between the Papists and the Dissenters I perceive that the force of your argument consists in this that the Dissenters besides their more than Jesuitical principles most pernicious to Civil Government as hath been now declared that they I say agreeing with the Church of England in the Doctrine differ chiefly concerning Government to which in conscience they ought and confess they may submit but the Papists disagreeing in the Doctrine and speculative points which they believe absolutely necessary to Salvation cannot possibly comply with us without the apparent danger of eternal damnation So having a more justifiable pretence to differ from us in the Spiritual Government only than the Dissenters in either the Ecclesiastical or Temporal they ought the rather of the two to be tolerated Truly the reason of this is very obvious in the Oeconomy of our families For if a Master should command two of his Sons or Servants to go for example half a score miles upon earnest business and the one should excuse himself for this reason that he is certainly assured or believes positively and unfeignedly that a company of Robbers or a Lion is in the way which answers to Damnation in the case of the Papists and that he shall be murdered or devoured that the other Son or Servant having no such fears upon him doth nevertheless upon some much more slight and frivolous pretence obstinately refuse to obey the Master desiring also that hence forward the Master would go upon his own errands himself which agrees with the condescension that the Dissenters require from the Government I think indeed in this case though both be guilty of disobedience yet the former is much more excusable and tolerable than the latter and that the obstinate Servant is much more unreasonable and dangerous in the family than the other I can say nothing against this but only wish that the one had less fear and the other more duty and respect Having then Sir given me full satisfaction concerning these three main points viz our Liberties Properties and Religion under our present Government in which having found no faults negatively we ought not to desire any change or innovation Yet nevertheless be pleased to let me know affirmatively why a Common-wealth might not be rationally promoted and set up in this present troublesome conjuncture of our affairs Trav. Let us then agree that our Author designs a Commonwealth as I have already prov'd from his own mouth Besides the constitution of his mix'd Government will inevitably bring it upon us or return us again to a Monarchy where we are For though he doth not tell us plainly that he designs totally to remove the King and Royal family yet so many inconveniences will happen that as it may be in the beginning of the late Traiterous Association all the Traitors might not at first resolve upon the barbarous murder of his Majesty and Royal Highness yet when they were once engag'd in the one they found the other