the Jews and their Heirs for ever for the pay of a provincial Army to protect them during the term of seven years and for two Millions annual Revenue from that time forward besides the Customs which would pay the provincial Army would have bin a bargain of such advantage both to them and this Commonwealth as is not to be found otherwise by either To receive the Jews after any other manner into a Commonwealth were to maim it for they of all Nations never incorporat but taking up the room of a Limb are of no use or office to the body while they suck the nourishment which would sustain a natural and useful Member IF Panopea had bin so dispos'd of that Knapsack with the Marpesian Auxiliary had bin an inestimable Treasure the Situation of these Countrys being Ilands as appears by Venice how advantageous such a one is to the like Government seems to have bin design'd by God for a Commonwealth And yet that thro the streitness of the place and The Situation of the Common-wealth of Oceana defect of proper Arms can be no more than a Commonwealth for Preservation wheras this reduc'd to the like Government is a Commonwealth for increase and upon the mightiest foundation that any has bin laid from the beginning of the World to this day Illam arctâ capiens Neptunus compede stringit Hanc autem glaucis captus complectitur ulnis THE Sea gives law to the growth of Venice but the growth of Oceana gives law to the Sea THESE Countrys having bin antiently distinct and hostil Kingdoms came by MORPHEUS the Marpesian who succeded by hereditary right to the Crown of Oceana not only to be join'd under one head but to be cast as it were by a charm into that profound sleep which broken at length by the Trumpet of Civil War has produc'd those effects that have given occasion to the insuing Discourse divided into four parts 1. The Preliminarys shewing the Principles of Government 2. The Council of Legislators shewing the Art of making a Commonwealth 3. The Model of the Commonwealth of Oceana shewing the effect of such an Art 4. The Corollary shewing som Consequences of such a Government The Preliminarys shewing the Principles of Government JANOTTI the most excellent Describer of the Commonwealth of Venice divides the whole Series of Government into two Times or Periods The one ending with the Liberty of Rome which was the Course of Empire as I may call it of Antient Prudence first discover'd to mankind by GOD himself in the Fabric of the Commonwealth of Israel and afterwards pick'd out of his Footsteps in Nature and unanimously follow'd by the Greecs and Romans The other beginning with the Arms of CAESAR which extinguishing Liberty were the Transition of Antient into Modern Prudence introduc'd by those Inundations of Huns Goths Vandals Lombards Saxons which breaking the Roman Empire deform'd the whole face of the World with those ill features of Government which at this time are becom far worse in these western parts except Venice which escaping the hands of the Barbarians by virtue of its impregnable Situation has had its ey fix'd upon antient Prudence and is attain'd to a perfection even beyond the Copy Definitions of Government RELATION being had to these two times Government to define it de jure or according to antient Prudence is an Art wherby a Civil Society of Men is instituted and preserv'd upon the Foundation of common Right or Interest or to follow ARISTOTLE and LIVY It is the Empire of Laws and not of Men. AND Government to define it de facto or according to modern Prudence is an Art wherby som man or som few men subject a City or a Nation and rule it according to his or their privat Interest which because the Laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man or of som few Familys may be said to be the Empire of Men and not of Laws THE former kind is that which MACHIAVEL whose Books are neglected is the only Politician that has gon about to retrieve and Pag. 180. Pag. 377. that LEVIATHAN who would have his Book impos'd upon the Universitys gos about to destroy For It is says he another Error of ARISTOTLE'S Politics that in a well-order'd Commonwealth not Men should govern but the Laws What man that has his natural senses tho he can neither write nor read dos not find himself govern'd by them he fears and believes can kill or hurt him when he obeys not Or who believes that the Law can hurt him which is but Words and Paper without the Hands and Swords of men I confess that * Magistratus est lex armata the Magistrat upon his Bench is that to the Law which a Gunner upon his Platform is to his Cannon Nevertheless I should not dare to argue with a man of any Ingenuity after this manner A whole Army tho they can neither write nor read are not afraid of a Platform which they know is but Earth or Stone nor of a Cannon which without a hand to give fire to it is but cold Iron therfore a whole Army is afraid of one man But of this kind is the Ratiocination of LEVIATHAN as I shall shew in divers places that com in my way throout his whole Politics Pag. 111. or worse as where he says of ARISTOTLE and of CICERO of the Greecs and of the Romans who liv'd under popular States that they deriv'd those Rights not from the Principles of Nature but transcrib'd them into their Books out of the practice of their own Commonwealths as Grammarians describe the Rules of Language out of Poets Which is as if a man should tell famous HERVY that he transcrib'd his Circulation of the Blood not out of the Principles of Nature but out of the Anatomy of this or that Body TO go on therfore with this preliminary Discourse I shall divide it according to the two definitions of Government relating to JANOTTI'S two times into two parts The First treating of the Principles of Government in general and according to the Antients The Second treating of the late Governments of Oceana in particular and in that of modern Prudence Division of Government GOVERNMENT according to the Antients and their learn'd Disciple MACHIAVEL the only Politician of later Ages is of three kinds The Government of One Man or of the Better sort or of the whole People which by their more learn'd names are call'd Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy These they hold thro their proneness to degenerat to be all evil For wheras they that govern should govern according to Reason if they govern according to Passion they do that which they should not do Wherfore as Reason and Passion are two things so Government by Reason is one thing and the corruption of Government by Passion is another thing but not always another Government as a Body that is alive is one thing and a Body that is dead
is in my Opinion the most perfect Form of Popular Government that ever was so this with his other Writings contain the History Reasons Nature and Effects of all sorts of Government with so much Learning and Perspicuity that nothing can be more preferably read on such occasions LET not those therfore who make no opposition to the reprinting or reading of PLATO's Heathen Commonwealth ridiculously declaim against the better and Christian Model of HARRINGTON but peruse both of 'em with as little prejudice passion or concern as they would a Book of Travels into the Indys for their improvement and diversion Yet so contrary are the Tempers of many to this equitable disposition that DIONYSIUS the Sicilian Tyrant and such Beasts of Prey are the worthy Examples they wou'd recommend to the imitation of our Governors tho if they cou'd be able to persuade 'em they wou'd still miss of their foolish aim for it is ever with all Books as formerly with those of CREMUTIUS CORDUS who was condemn'd by that Monster TIBERIUS for speaking honorably of the immortal Tyrannicides BRUTUS and CASSIUS TACITUS records the last words of this Historian and subjoins this judicious Remark The Senat says he order'd his Books to be burnt by the Ediles but som Copys were conceal'd and afterwards publish'd whence we may take occasion to laugh at the sottishness of those who imagin that their present Power can also abolish the memory of succeding time for on the contrary Authors acquire additional Reputation by their Punishment nor have Foren Kings and such others as have us'd the like severity got any thing by it except to themselves Disgrace and Glory to the Writers But the Works of HARRINGTON were neither supprest at their first publication under the Vsurper nor ever since call'd in by lawful Authority but as inestimable Treasures preserv'd by all that had the happiness to possess 'em intire so that what was a precious rarity before is now becom a Public Good with extraordinary advantages of Correctness Paper and Print What I have perform'd in the History of his Life I leave the Readers to judg for themselves but in that and all my other studys I constantly aim'd as much at least at the benefit of Mankind and especially of my fellow Citizens as at my own particular Entertainment or Reputation THE Politics no less than Arms are the proper study of a Gentleman tho he shou'd consine himself to nothing but carefully adorn his Mind and Body with all useful and becoming Accomplishments and not imitat the servil drudgery of those mean Spirits who for the sake of som one Science neglect the knowlege of all other matters and in the end are many times neither masters of what they profess nor vers'd enough in any thing else to speak of it agreably or pertinently which renders 'em untractable in Conversation as in Dispute they are opinionative and passionat envious of their Fame who eclipse their littleness and the sworn Enemys of what they do not understand BVT Heaven be duly prais'd Learning begins to flourish again in its proper Soil among our Gentlemen in imitation of the Roman Patricians who did not love to walk in Leading strings and to be guided blindfold nor lazily to abandon the care of their proper Business to the management of Men having a distinct Profession and Interest for the greatest part of their best Authors were Persons of Consular Dignity the ablest Statesmen and the most gallant Commanders Wherfore the amplest satisfaction I can injoy of this sort will be to find those delighted with reading this Work for whose service it was intended by the Author and which with the study of other good Books but especially a careful perusal of the Greec and Roman Historians will make 'em in reality deserve the Title and Respect of Gentlemen help 'em to make an advantageous Figure in their own time and perpetuat their illustrious Names and solid Worth to be admir'd by future Generations AS for my self tho no imployment or condition of Life shall make me disrelish the lasting entertainment which Books afford yet I have resolv'd not to write the Life of any modern Person again except that only of one Man still alive and whom in the ordinary course of nature I am like to survive a long while he being already far advanc'd in his declining time and I but this present day beginning the thirtieth year of my Age. Canon near Bansted Novemb. 30. 1699. THE LIFE OF James Harrington 1. JAMES HARRINGTON who was born in January 1611 was descended of an Antient and Noble Family in Rutlandshire being Great Grandson to Sir JAMES HARRINGTON of whom it is observ'd by the * Wright's Antiquitys of the County of Rutland p. 52. Historian of that County that there were sprung in his time eight Dukes three Marquisses seventy Earls twenty seven Viscounts and thirty six Barons of which number sixteen were Knights of the Garter to confirm which Account we shall annex a Copy of the Inscription on his Monument and that of his three Sons at Exton with Notes on the same by an uncertain hand As for our Author he was the eldest Son of Sir SAPCOTES HARRINGTON and JANE the Daughter of Sir WILLIAM SAMUEL of Vpton in Northamtonshire His Father had Children besides him WILLIAM a Merchant in London ELIZABETH marry'd to Sir RALPH ASHTON in Lancashire Baronet ANN marry'd to ARTHUR EVELYN Esq And by a second Wife he had JOHN kill'd at Sea EDWARD a Captain in the Army yet living FRANCES marry'd to JOHN BAGSHAW of Culworth in Northamtonshire Esq and DOROTHY marry'd to ALLAN BELLINGHAM of Levens in Westmorland Esq This Lady is still alive and when she understood my Design was pleas'd to put me in possession of all the remaining Letters and other Manuscript Papers of her Brother with the Collections and Observations relating to him made by his other Sister the Lady ASHTON a Woman of very extraordinary Parts and Accomplishments These with the Account given of him by ANTHONY WOOD in the second Volum of his Athenae Oxonienses and what I cou'd learn from the Mouths of his surviving Acquaintance are the Materials wherof I compos'd this insuing History of his Life 2. IN his very Childhood he gave sure hopes of his future Abilitys as well by his Inclination and Capacity to learn whatever was propos'd to him as by a kind of natural gravity whence his Parents and Masters were wont to say That he rather kept them in aw than needed their correction yet when grown a Man none could easily surpass him for quickness of Wit and a most facetious Temper He was enter'd a Gentleman Commoner of Trinity College in Oxford in the year 1629 and became a Pupil to that great Master of Reason Dr. CHILLINGWORTH who discovering the Errors Impostures and Tyranny of the Popish Church wherof he was for som time a Member attackt it with more proper and succesâ—ful Arms than all before or perhaps any since have
his Book speedily restor'd to him and he did accordingly inscribe it to OLIVER CROMWEL who after the perusal of it said the Gentleman had like to trapan him out of his Power but that what he got by the Sword he would not quit for a little paper Shot adding in his usual cant that he approv'd the Government of a single Person as little as any of 'em but that he was forc'd to take upon him the Office of a High Constable to preserve the Peace among the several Partys in the Nation since he saw that being left to themselves they would never agree to any certain form of Government and would only spend their whole Power in defeating the Designs or destroying the Persons of one another 15. BUT nothing in the world could better discover CROMWEL'S Dissimulation than this Speech since HARRINGTON had demonstrated in his Book that no Commonwealth could be so easily or perfectly establish'd as one by a sole Legislator it being in his power if he were a man of good Invention himself or had a good Model propos'd to him by others to set up a Government in the whole piece at once and in perfection but an Assembly being of better Judgment than Invention generally make patching work in forming a Government and are whole Ages about that which is seldom or never brought by 'em to any perfection but is commonly ruin'd by the way leaving the noblest Attemts under reproach and the Authors of 'em expos'd to the greatest dangers while they live and to a certain infamy when dead Wherfore the wisest Assemblys in mending or making a Government have pitch'd upon a sole Legislator whose Model they could rightly approve tho not so well digest as Musicians can play in consort and judg of an Air that is laid before them tho to invent a part of Music they could never agree nor succede so happily as one Person If CROMWEL therfore had meant as he spoke no man had ever such an opportunity of reforming what was amiss in the old Government or setting up one wholly new either according to the Plan of Oceana or any other This would have made him indeed a Hero superior in lasting fame to SOLON LYCURGUS ZALEUCUS and CHARONDAS and render his Glory far more resplendent his Security greater and his Renoun more durable than all the Pomp of his ill acquir'd Greatness could afford wheras on the contrary he liv'd in continual fears of those he had inslav'd dy'd abhor'd as a monstrous betrayer of those Libertys with which he was intrusted by his Country and his Posterity not possessing a foot of what for their only sakes he was generally thought to usurp But this last is a mistaken Notion for som of the most notorious Tyrants liv'd and dy'd without any hopes of Children which is a good reason why no mortal ought to be trusted with too much Power on that score LYCURGUS and ANDREW DORIA who when it was in their power to continue Princes chose rather to be the founders of their Countrys Liberty will be celebrated for their Virtue thro the course of all Ages and their very Names convey the highest Ideas of Godlike Generosity while JULIUS CAESAR OLIVER CROMWEL and such others as at any time inslav'd their fellow Citizens will be for ever remember'd with detestation and cited as the most execrable Examples of the vilest Treachery and Ingratitude It is only a refin'd and excellent Genius a noble Soul ambitious of solid Praise a sincere lover of Virtue and the good of all Mankind that is capable of executing so glorious an Undertaking as making a People free 'T is my fix'd opinion that if the Protector 's mind had the least tincture of true greatness he could not be proof against the incomparable Rewards propos'd by HARRINGTON in the Corollary of his Oceana as no Prince truly generous whether with or without Heirs is able to resist their Charms provided he has an opportunity to advance the happiness of his People 'T was this Disposition that brought the Prince of ORANGE to head us when we lately contended for our Liberty to this we ow those inestimable Laws we have obtain'd since out of a grateful confidence we made him our King and how great things or after what manner we may expect from him in time to com is as hard to be truly conceiv'd as worthily express'd 16. I SHALL now give som account of the Book it self intitl'd by the Author The Commonwealth of Oceana a name by which he design'd England as being the noblest Iland of the Northern Ocean But before I procede further I must explain som other words occurring in this Book which is written after the manner of a Romance in imitation of PLATO'S Atlantic Story and is a method ordinarily follow'd by Lawgivers Adoxus King JOHN Convallium Hamton Court Coraunus HENRY VIII Dicotome RICHARD II. Emporium London Halcionia The Thames Halo Whitehall Hiera Westminster Leviathan HOBBES Marpesia Scotland Morpheus JAMES I. Mount Celia Windsor Neustrians Normans Olphaus Megaletor OLIVER CROMWEL Panopaea Ireland Pantheon Westminster Hall Panurgus HENRY VII Parthenia Queen ELIZABETH Scandians Danes Teutons Saxons Turbo WILLIAM the Conqueror Verulamius Lord Chancellor BACON 17. THE Book consists of Preliminarys divided into two parts and a third Section call'd the Council of Legislators then follows the Model of the Commonwealth or the body of the Book and lastly coms the Corollary or Conclusion The Preliminary Discourses contain the Principles Generation and Effects of all Governments whether Monarchical Aristocratical or Popular and their several Corruptions as Tyranny Oligarchy and Anarchy with all the good or bad mixtures that naturally result from them But the first part dos in a more particular manner treat of antient Prudence or that genius of Government which most prevail'd in the world till the time of JULIUS CAESAR None can consult a more certain Oracle that would conceive the nature of Foren or Domestic Empire the Balance of Land or Mony Arms or Contracts Magistracy and Judicatures Agrarian Laws Elections by the Ballot Rotation of Officers with a great many such heads especially the inconveniences and preeminences of each kind of Government or the true comparison of 'em all together These Subjects have bin generally treated distinctly and every one of them seems to require a Volum yet I am of opinion that in this short Discourse there is a more full and clearer account of them than can be easily found elswhere at least I must own to have receiv'd greater satisfaction here than in all my reading before and the same thing has bin frankly own'd to me by others 18. THE second part of the Preliminarys treats of modern Prudence or that genius of Government which has most obtain'd in the world since the expiration of the Roman Liberty particularly the Gothic Constitution beginning with the inundation of the barbarous Northern Nations over the Roman Empire In this Discourse there is a very clear account of the English Government
Doctor 's Censure of the Commonwealth of Oceana 'T is a Treatise of little importance and contains nothing but what he has much better discours'd in his answers to other Antagonists which is the reason that I give the Reader no more trouble about it 22. THE next that wrote against Oceana was MATTHEW WREN eldest Son to the Bishop of Ely His Book was intitl'd Considerations and restrain'd only to the first part of the Preliminarys To this our Author publish'd an answer in the first Book of his Prerogative of Popular Government where he inlarges explains and vindicats his Assertions How inequal this Combat was and after what manner he treated his Adversary I leave the Reader to judg only minding him that as WREN was one of the Virtuosi who met at Dr. WILKINS'S the Seminary of the now Royal Society HARRINGTON jokingly said That they had an excellent faculty of magnifying a Louse and diminishing a Commonwealth But the Subjects he handles on this occasion are very curious and reduc'd to the twelve following Questions 1. WHETHER Prudence or the Politics be well distinguish'd into Antient and Modern 2. WHETHER a Commonwealth be rightly defin'd to be a Government of Laws and not of men and Monarchy to be a Government of som men or a few men and not of Laws 3. WHETHER the Balance of Dominion in Land be the natural cause of Empire 4. WHETHER the Balance of Empire be well divided into National and Provincial and whether these two or any Nations that are of a distinct Balance coming to depend on one and the same head such a mixture creates a new Balance 5. WHETHER there be any common Right or Interest of Mankind distinct from the Interest of the parts taken severally and how by the orders of a Commonwealth this may best be distinguish'd from privat Interest 6. WHETHER the Senatusconsulta or Decrees of the Roman Senat had the power of Laws 7. WHETHER the Ten Commandments propos'd by God or MOSES were voted and past into Laws by the People of Israel 8. WHETHER a Commonwealth coming up to the perfection of the Kind coms not up to the perfection of Government and has no flaw in it that is whether the best Commonwealth be not the best Government 9. WHETHER Monarchy coming up to the perfection of the Kind coms not short of the perfection of Government and has not som flaw in it that is whether the best Monarchy be not the worst Government Under this head are also explain'd the Balance of France the Original of a Landed Clergy Arms and their several kinds 10. WHETHER any Commonwealth that was not first broken or divided by it self was ever conquer'd by any Monarch where he shews that none ever were and that the greatest Monarchys have bin broken by very small Commonwealths 11. WHETHER there be not an Agrarian or som Law or Laws to supply the defects of it in every Commonwealth Whether the Agrarian as it is stated in Oceana be not equal and satisfactory to all Interests or Partys 12. WHETHER a Rotation or Courses and Turns be necessary to a welorder'd Commonwealth In which is contain'd the Parembole or Courses of Israel before the Captivity together with an Epitome of the Commonwealth of Athens as also another of the Common-wealth of Venice 23. THE second Book of the Prerogative of Popular Government chiefly concerns Ordination in the Christian Church and the Orders of the Commonwealth of Israel against the opinions of Dr. HAMMOND Dr. SEAMAN and the Authors they follow His Dispute with these learned Persons the one of the Episcopal and the other of the Presbyterian Communion is comprehended in five Chapters 1. THE first explaining the words Chirotonia and Chirothesia paraphrastically relates the Story of the Perambulation made by the Apostles PAUL and BARNABAS thro the Citys of Lycaonia Pisidia c. 2. THE second shews that those Citys or most of 'em were at the time of this Perambulation under Popular Government in which is also contain'd the whole Administration of a Roman Province 3. THE third shews the deduction of the Chirotonia or holding up of hands from Popular Government and that the original of Ordination is from this custom in which is also contain'd the Institution of the Sanhedrim or Senat of Israel by MOSES and of that of Rome by ROMULUS 4. THE fourth shews the deduction of the Chirothesia or the laying on of hands from Monarchical or Aristocratical Government and so the second way of Ordination procedes from this custom here is also declar'd how the Commonwealth of the Jews stood after the Captivity 5. THE fifth debates whether the Chirotonia us'd in the Citys mention'd was as is pretended by Dr. HAMMOND Dr. SEAMAN and the Authors they follow the same with the Chirothesia or a far different thing In which are contain'd the divers kinds of Church Government introduc'd and exercis'd in the age of the Apostles By these heads we may perceive that a great deal of useful Learning is contain'd in this Book and questionless he makes those Subjects more plain and intelligible than any Writer I ever yet consulted 24. AGAINST Oceana chiefly did RICHARD BAXTER write his Holy Commonwealth of which our Author made so slight that he vouchsaf'd no other answer to it but half a sheet of Cant and Ridicule It dos not appear that he rail'd at all the Ministers as a parcel of Fools and Knaves But the rest of BAXTER'S complaint seems better grounded as that HARRINGTON maintain'd neither he nor any Ministers understood at all what Polity was but prated against they knew not what c. This made him publish his Holy Commonwealth in answer to HARRINGTON 's Heathenish Commonwealth in which adds he I plead the Cause of Monarchy as better than Democracy or Aristocracy an odd way of modelling a Commonwealth And yet the Royalists were so far from thinking his Book for their service that in the year 1683 it was by a Decree of the University of Oxford condemn'd to be publicly burnt which Sentence was accordingly executed upon it in company with som of the Books of HOBBES MILTON and others wheras no censure past on HARRINGTON's Oceana or the rest of his Works As for Divines meddling with Politics he has in the former part of the Preliminarys to Oceana deliver'd his Opinion That there is somthing first in the making of a Commonwealth then in the governing of it and last of all in the leading of its Armys which tho there be great Divines great Lawyers great Men in all Professions seems to be peculiar only to the genius of a Gentleman for it is plain in the universal series of story that if any man founded a Commonwealth he was first a Gentleman the truth of which Assertion he proves from MOSES downwards 25. BEING much importun'd from all hands to publish an Abridgment of his Oceana he consented at length and so in the year 1659 was printed his Art of Lawgiving or of Legislation
in three Books The first which treats of the Foundations and Superstructures of all kinds of Government is an abstract of his Preliminarys to the Oceana and the third Book shewing a Model of Popular Government fitted to the present State or Balance of this Nation is an exact Epitome of his Oceana with short Discourses explaining the Propositions By the way the Pamphlet called the Rota is nothing else but these Propositions without the Discourses and therfore to avoid a needless repetition not printed among his Works The second Book between these two is a full Account of the Commonwealth of Israel with all the variations it underwent Without this Book it is plainly impossible to understand that admirable Government concerning which no Author wrote common sense before HARRINGTON who was persuaded to complete this Treatise by such as observ'd his judicious Remarks on the same Subject in his other Writings To the Art of Lawgiving is annex'd a small Dissertation or a Word concerning a House of Peers which to abridg were to transcribe 26. IN the same year 1659 WREN coms out with another Book call'd Monarchy asserted in vindication of his Considerations If he could not press hard on our Author's Reasonings he was resolv'd to overbear him with impertinence and calumny treating him neither with the respect due to a Gentleman nor the fair dealing becoming an ingenuous Adversary but on the contrary with the utmost Chicanery and Insolence The least thing to be admir'd is that he would needs make the University a Party against him and bring the heavy weight of the Church's displeasure on his sholders for as corrupt Ministers stile themselves the Government by which Artifice they oblige better men to suppress their Complaints for fear of having their Loyalty suspected so every ignorant Pedant that affronts a Gentleman is presently a Learned University or if he is but in Deacons Orders he 's forthwith transform'd into the Catholic Church and it becoms Sacrilege to touch him But as great Bodys no less than privat Persons grow wiser by Experience and com to a clearer discernment of their true Interest so I believe that neither the Church nor Universitys will be now so ready to espouse the Quarrels of those who under pretence of serving them ingage in Disputes they no ways understand wherby all the discredit redounds to their Patrons themselves being too mean to suffer any diminution of Honor. HARRINGTON was not likewise less blamable in being provok'd to such a degree by this pitiful Libel as made him forget his natural character of gravity and greatness of mind Were not the best of men subject to their peculiar weaknesses he had never written such a Farce as his Politicasâ—er or Comical Discourse in answer to Mr. WREN It relates little or nothing to the Argument which was not so much amiss considering the ignorance of his Antagonist but it is of so very small merit that I would not insert it among his other Works as a piece not capable to instruct or please any man now alive I have not omitted his Answer to Dr. STUBBE concerning a select Senat as being so little worth but as being only a repetition of what he has much better and more amply treated in som of his other pieces Now we must note that upon the first appearance of his Oceana this STUBBE was so great an admirer of him that in his Preface to the Good Old Cause he says he would inlarge in his praise did he not think himself too inconsiderable to add any thing to those Applauses which the understanding part of the World must bestow upon him and which tho Eloquence should turn Panegyrist he not only merits but transcends 27. OTHER Treatises of his which are omitted for the same reason are 1. A Discourse upon this Saying The Spirit of the Nation is not yet to be trusted with Liberty lest it introduce Monarchy or invade the Liberty of Conscience which Proposition he disapprov'd 2. A Discourse shewing that the Spirit of Parlaments with a Council in the intervals is not to be trusted for a Settlement lest it introduce Monarchy and Persecution for Conscience 3. A Parallel of the spirit of the People with the spirit of Mr. ROGERS with an Appeal to the Reader whether the spirit of the People or the spirit of men like Mr. ROGERS be the fitter to be trusted with the Government This ROGERS was an Anabaptist a seditious Enthusiast or fifthmonarchy man 4. Pour enclouer le canon or the nailing of the Enemys Artillery 5. The stumbling block of Disobedience and Rebellion cunningly imputed by PETER HEYLIN to CALVIN remov'd in a Letter to the said P. H. who wrote a long Answer to it in the third part of his Letter combat 'T is obvious by the bare perusal of the Titles that these are but Pamphlets solely calculated for that time and it certainly argues a mighty want of Judgment in those Editors who make no distinction between the elaborat Works which an Author intended for universal benefit and his more slight or temporary Compositions which were written to serve a present turn and becom afterwards not only useless but many times not intelligible Of this nature are the Pieces I now mention'd all their good things are much better treated in his other Books and the personal Reflections are as I said before neither instructive nor diverting On this occasion I must signify that tho the History I wrote of MILTON'S Life be prefix'd to his Works yet I had no hand in the Edition of those Volumes or otherwise his Logic his Grammar and the like had not increas'd the bulk or price of his other useful Pieces Our Author translated into English Verse som of Virgil's Eclogs and about six Books of his Aeneids which with his Epigrams and other Poetical Conceits are neither worthy of him nor the light 28. SOM other small Books he wrote which are more deserving and therfore transmitted to Posterity with his greater Works namely 1. Valerius and Publicola or the true form of a Popular Commonwealth a Dialog 2. Political Aphorisms in number 120. 3. Seven Models of a Commonwealth Antient and Modern or brief Directions shewing how a fit and perfect Model of Popular Government may be made found or understood These are all the Commonwealths in the World for their kinds tho not for their number 4. The Ways and means wherby an equal and lasting Commonwealth may be suddenly introduc'd and perfectly founded with the free consent and actual confirmation of the whole People of England 5. There is added The Petition of divers well affected Persons drawn up by HARRINGTON and containing the Abstract of his Oceana but presented to the House of Commons by HENRY NEVIL the 6 th of July 1659 to which a satisfactory answer was return'd but nothing don 6. Besides all these finding his Doctrin of Elections by Balloting not so well understood as could he desir'd he publish'd on one side of a large sheet of
his Oceana was the Model of an equal Commonwealth or a Government wherin no Party can be at variance with or gaining ground upon another and never to be conquer'd by any foren Power whence he concluded it must needs be likewise immortal for as the People who are the materials never dy so the Form which is the Motion must without som opposition be endless The Immortality of a Commonwealth is such a new and curious Problem that I could not assure my self of the Reader 's pardon without giving him som brief account of the Arguments for it and they run much after this manner The perfection of Government is such a Libration in the frame of it that no Man or Men under it can have the interest or having the interest can have the power to disturb it with Sedition This will be granted at first sight and HARRINGTON appeals to all Mankind whether his Oceana examin'd by this principle be not such an equal Government completely and intirely fram'd in all its necessary Orders or fundamental Laws without any contradiction to it self to Reason or Truth If this be so as the contrary dos not yet appear then it has no internal cause of Dissolution and consequently such a Government can never be ruin'd any way for he further shews what all History cannot contradict that a Commonwealth if not first broken or divided by Factions at home was never conquer'd by the Arms of any Monarch from the beginning of the World to this day but the Commonwealth of Oceana having no Factions within and so not to be conquer'd from without is therfore an equal perfect and immortal Government For want of this equality in the frame he clearly demonstrats how the Common-wealths of Rome Athens and others came to be destroy'd by their contending and oveâ—topping partys wheras that of Venice can never change or finish He proves that this Equality is yet more wanting in Monarchys for in absolute Monarchy as that of the Turk for example the Janizarys have frequent interest and perpetual power to raise Sedition to the ruin of the Emperor and when they please of the Empire This cannot be said of the Armys of Oceana and therfore an absolute Monarchy is no perfect Government In what they improperly call a mix'd Monarchy the Nobility are somtimes putting Chains on the King at other times domineering over the People the King is either oppressing the People without control or contending with the Nobility as their Protectors and the People are frequently in arms against both King and Nobility till at last one of the three Estates becoms master of the other two or till they so mutually weaken one another that either they fall a prey to som more potent Government or naturally grow into a Commonwealth therfore mixt Monarchy is not a perfect Government and if no such Partys or Contentions can possibly exist in Oceana then on the contrary is it a most equal perfect and immortal Commonwealth Quod erat demonstrandum 43. IT will not be objected to the disparagement of this Model that it was no better receiv'd by OLIVER CROMWEL nor is it fair to judg of things at any time by their Success If it should be said that after the expiration of his Tyranny the People did not think fit to establish it I shall only answer that all the Attemts which have bin us'd for introducing Arbitrary Power have prov'd as unfortunat wherby it appears at least that the character which TACITUS gave the Romans of his time may as well agree to the People of England and it is that They are able to bear neither absolute Liberty nor absolute Slavery CONCLVSION I AM dispos'd to believe that my Lady ASHTON'S memory fail'd her when she said that her Brother was at Rome during the Jubilee for as Chronology seems to contradict it so she might easily mistake the Jubilee for the Ceremony of consecrating Candles or any other solemnity his remarks being equally applicable to all those of the Popish Church But as to the whole of this History tho it be manag'd with due moderation and contains nothing but bare matters of fact or such observations as they naturally suggest yet I was sensible before I wrote it that I could not escape the displeasure of three sorts of persons such as have resolv'd to be angry at whatever I do such as neither rightly understand what is written by me nor any body else and those who without any particular spite against an Author yet to get a penny will pretend to answer any book that makes a considerable figure Therfore I find my self oblig'd beforehand to disclaim all explanations made of my meaning beyond what is warranted by the express words of my Book having constantly indeavor'd not only to write intelligibly but so as that none can possibly misunderstand me I renounce all the designs that may be imputed to me by such as are so far from being admitted into my secret that they were never in my company but I specially disown whatever is said by those who first presume to divine my thoughts and then to vent their own rash conjectures as my undoubted opinions I slight their artifice who when unable to object against the point in question labor to ingage their Adversary in matters wholly besides the purpose and when their Evasions have no better fortune than their Attacks fall to railing against his Person because they cannot confute his Arguments I am as much above the malice of som as they are below my resentments and I wou'd at any time chuse to be rather the object of their Envy than of their Favor but as I am far from thinking my self exemt from all the indiscretions of Youth or the frailtys of human Nature so I am not conscious of entertaining higher thoughts of my own performances than are becoming or meaner of other mens than they deserve I know that to enterprize any thing out of the common road is to undergo undoubted envy or peril and that he who is not beforehand resolv'd to bear opposition will never do any great or beneficial exploit yet 't is no small incouragement to me that from the beginning of the world to this time not a single instance can be produc'd of one who either was or would be eminent but he met with Enemys to his person and fame Notwithstanding this consideration be just yet if I write any thing hereafter either as oblig'd by Duty or to amuze idle time I have determin'd it shall not concern personal disputes or the narrow interests of jarring Factions but somthing of universal benefit and which all sides may indifferently read Without such provocations as no man ought to indure this is my fix'd resolution and I particularly desire that none may blame me for acting otherwise who force me to do so themselves I shall never be wanting to my own defence when either the Cause or the Aggressor deserves it for as to those Authors who conceal their
new Monarchy which is neither By observation of these three flourishes the present Chapter may be brought into some method The first blow of his Hammer or that wherby he intends the flaw or hole in Monarchy by Arms shall henceforth be mended and tite is this That the Guards of the King's Consid p. 46. Person be not increas'd beyond the necessity of security that they be not suffer'd to stagnat at Court but be by a perpetual circulation drawn out upon service and chiefly that they consist not of one intire Body united under the same Head but be divided into distinct Partys and Commands as we may see in France where tho in proportion to the extent of their Dominions the King's Guards be more numerous than those of the Roman or Turkish Emperors yet being divided into distinct Bodys of French Scots and Switzers under their several Colonels and Captains they have never bin the Authors of any the least Sedition And in Turky of late years they begin to learn the Art of poisoning the Janizarys by the Spahys and so have frequently evaded the danger of their Mutinys Which fine work at first view gos upon this false ground that the Foundation of Monarchy by Arms is laid upon the Princes Guards or the Court Militia wheras Monarchy by Arms consists in no other Balance than the Princes being sole Landlord which where imperfect as it was in that of the Roman Emperors the Empire is the most troubl'd and where perfect as in Turky the Empire is less seditious For that which he says of France it relates to Monarchy by a Nobility and therfore is not to be confounded according to his method with this but refer'd to the next branch Book I AS to Monarchy by Arms tho it be true that the balance of Dominion in any of the three kinds may be said to be natural in regard of the effect yet seeing God has given the Earth to the Sons of Men that of a sole Landlord as Turky is not so natural in the cause or foundation as the Timars and therfore requires the application of som kind of force as the Janizarys who are not the root of the Government that being planted in the Earth of the Timars or military Farms and Colonys for that the Janizarys are not the Foundation of this Empire which was founded long before is plain in that this Order was not introduc'd till AMURATH the Second but the Dragon that lys at that root and without which the Fruit would fall into the mouths of the Timariots by way of Property as when the Knights Fees granted first for life became afterwards hereditary in Oceana which would cause such a fall from Monarchy that it would becom as we have seen the rise of popular Power the Lots in case this should happen of the Timariots little differing from those divided by JOSHUA to the Children of Israel wherfore when this happens in the Turkish Monarchy it is at an end And that this dos not happen tho there be divers other concurrent Policys I would have any man shew me how it could be but for the Janizarys Otherwise it is plain that the Janizarys being a flying Army on wing at all games and upon all occasions are not so much the Guard of the Prince as of the Empire which ruin'd the Prey falls to the Timariots as those that are in possession except these be ruin'd too who being all Horse and far greater in number than the Janizarys that are Foot would in case the aw of the Prince and the Policy of the Government which holds them divided were broken be invincible by the Janizarys who nevertheless by these aids can easily contain them Whence the Sedition of the Janizarys like that of a Nobility may be dangerous to the Prince but never threatens the Throne wheras the Sedition of the Timariots like that of a People would be more against the Throne than the Prince These things consider'd and in them the Nature Constitution or Disease of Monarchy by Arms we may consult the more rationally with the Considerer upon the Applications or Remedys by him offer'd which are three FIRST That the Guards of the King's Person be not increas'd beyond the necessity of Security But of what Security that of his Person or of his Empire or of both for speaking of a Monarchy by Arms in this latter sense only it is true and if so then this singular Maxim of State Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora might have bin spar'd Cela s'en va sans le dire comme les heures de nostre curè SECONDLY That they be not suffer'd to stagnat at Court but be by a perpetual circulation drawn out upon service for if there be not perpetual service it should seem men might be apt to think that Government was instituted for Peace as well as War I add no more than is imply'd in his words which as to this of Turky have chanc'd well where not the Stagnation of the Janizarys only but of the Court it self which by the institution should always be in exercise of Arms is the cause of that present decay so perceivable in this Empire But the Prince sitting still or stagnating to what the Circulation of the Janizarys whose Alienation from the Government or Intelligence with the Timariots must needs be of dangerous consequence could tend should have bin thought on otherwise to expose the Empire to Chap. 9 danger for the safety of the Prince is no cure of the Government BUT his chief Remedy remains This Court Militia must not consist of one intire body united under the same head but be divided under several Colonels Captains Partys Brigades and distributed to several Quarters As if this were a cure there were any Army that could be mutinous but where he says not united under the same Head he intimats perhaps divers Generals and divers Armys now such are the Turkish Beglerbegs and the Provinces under their Governments That these therfore be kept divided so that not any two of them can lay their heads together without having them cut off nor any Son succede the Father in Government requires that there be always a sufficient force distinct from the Interest of the Timariots and Beglerbegs united and still ready upon occasion of this service and the Janizarys with the Spahys or Court-Horse being united are no more than sufficient for this service Wherfore if these also were so divided as therby to be weaken'd they could not be sufficient for this service and their division except such as might weaken them would be of no security to the Prince That the Provinces under this aw are less apt to rebel than the Court-Guards to mutiny is no wonder but the Court-Guards being cur'd by the prescription of this Physician of the possibility of Mutiny which without weakening them is impossible the Provinces if Liberty or Riches or Power be desirable would never indure the yoke
such Objections as they afford me it should be alleg'd that to prove an Order in a Commonwealth I instance in a Monarchy as if there were any thing in this Order monarchical or that could if it had not bin so receiv'd from the Commonwealth have bin introduc'd by the Kings to whom in the judgment of any sober man the Prevaricator only excepted who has bin huckling about som such Council for his Prince no less could have follow'd upon the first frown of the People than did in REHOBOAM who having 1 Kings 12. us'd them roughly was depos'd by the Congregation or the major part It is true that while Israel was an Army the Congregation as it needed not to assemble by way of Election or Representative so I believe it did not but that by all Israel assembl'd to this end should be meant the whole People after they were planted upon their Lots and not their Representative which in a political sense is as properly so call'd were absurd and impossible Nor need I go upon presumtion only be the same never so strong seeing it is said in Scripture of the Korathites that they were keepers of the Gates of the Tabernacle and their Fathers 1 Chron. 9. 29. being over the Host of the Lord were keepers of the Entry That is according to the Interpretation of GROTIUS the Korathites were Book I now keepers of the Gates as it appears in the Book of Numbers their Numb 4. Ancestors the Kohathites had bin in the Camp or while Israel was yet an Army But our Translation is lame in the right foot as to the true discovery of the antient manner of this service which according to the Septuagint and the vulgar Latin was thus they were keepers of the Gates of the Tabernacle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 familiae eorum per vices and their Fathers by turns or Rotation So that Offices and Services by Courses Turns or Rotation are plainly more antient than Kings in the Commonwealth of Israel tho it be true that when the Courses or Rotation of the Congregation or Representative of the People were first introduc'd is as hard to shew as it would be how after the People were once planted upon their Lots they could be otherwise assembl'd If Writers argue well and lawfully from what the Sanhedrim was in the institution by JEHOSAPHAT to what it had more antiently bin to argue from what the Congregation was in the institution by DAVID to what it had more antiently bin is sufficiently warranted THESE things rightly consider'd there remains little doubt but we have the courses of Israel for the first example of Rotation in a popular Assembly Now to com from the Hebrew to the Grecian Prudence the same is approv'd by ARISTOTLE which he exemplifys in the Commonwealth of THALES MILESIUS where the People Pol. l. 4. c. 14. he says assembl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by turns or Rotation Nor is the Roman Prudence without som shadow of the like Proceding where the Prerogative pro tempore with the jure vocatae being made by Lot gave frequently the Suffrage of the whole People But the Gothic Prudence in the Policy of the third State runs altogether upon the Collection of a Representative by the Suffrage of the People tho not so diligently regulated by Terms and Vacations as to a standing Assembly were necessary by Turns Rotation Parembole or Courses as in the election of the late House of Commons and the constitutive Vicissitude of the Knights and Burgesses is known by sufficient experience WHEN the Rotation of a Commonwealth is both in the Magistracy and the People I reckon it to be of a fourth kind as in Israel where both the Judg and the Congregation were so elected THE fifth kind is when the Rotation of a Commonwealth is in the Magistracy and the Senat as in those of Athens of the Achaeans of the Aetolians of the Lycians and of Venice upon which Examples rather for the influence each of them at least Athens may have upon the following Book than any great necessity from the present occasion I shall inlarge in this place THE Commonwealth of Athens was thus administer'd Epitome of the Athenian Commonwealth THE Senat of the Bean being the proposing Assembly for that of the Areopagits call'd also a Senat was a Judicatory consisted of four hundred Citizens chosen by Lot which was perform'd with Beans These were annually remov'd all at once By which means Athens became frustrated of the natural and necessary use of an Aristocracy while neither her Senators were chosen for their parts nor remain'd long enough in this Function to acquire the right understanding of their proper Office These thus elected were subdivided by Lot into four equal parts call'd Prytanys each of which for one quarter of the year was in office The Prytany or Prytans in office elected ten Presidents Chap. 12 call'd Proedri out of which Proedri or Presidents they weekly chose one Provost of the Council who was call'd the Epistata The Epistata and the Proedri were the more peculiar Proposers to the Prytans and to the Prytans it belong'd especially to prepare business Petit. de Leg Att. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Senat. They gave also audience to any that would propose any thing concerning the Common-wealth which if when reported by the Prytans it were approv'd by the Senat the party that propos'd might promulgat the business and Promulgation being made the Congregation assembl'd and determin'd of it Sic data concio Laelio est processit ille Graecus apud Graecos Cic. pro Flac non de culpa sua dixit sed de poena questus est porrexerunt manus Psephisma natum est THE Prytans and their Magistrats had right to assemble the Senat and propose to them and what the Senat determin'd upon such a Proposition if forthwith to be offer'd to the People as in privat cases was call'd Proboulema but if not to be propos'd till the People had a years trial of it as was the ordinary way in order to Laws to be enacted it was call'd Psephisma each of which words with that difference signifys a Decree A Decree of the Senat in the latter sense had for one year the power of a Law after which trial it belong'd to the Thesmothetae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hang it in writing upon the Statues of the Heros and assemble the Congregation These Magistrats were of the Ulpiâ—n ad Phil. 1. number of the Archons which in all were nine the chief more peculiarly so call'd was ARCHON EPONYMUS he by whose name the year was reckon'd or denominated his Magistracy being of a Civil Poll. l. 8. c. 8. concernment the next was the King a Magistrat of a Spiritual concernment the third the Polemarch whose Magistracy was of a Military concernment the other six were the Thesmothetae who had several Functions common with the nine others peculiar or proper to themselves as 〈◊〉
of the Province but because they could not foresee all things as appear'd by the Questions which PLINY put upon the Laws of POMPEY to TRAJAN it came to pass that much was permitted to the Edicts of the Provincial Pretors as was also in use at Rome with the Pretors of the City and if any man had judg'd otherwise in his Province than he ought to have don in the City made an Edict contrary to the Law of his Province or judg'd any thing otherwise than according to his own Edict he was held guilty of and questionable for a hainous Crime But what the Law of this or that Province which differed in each was would be hard particularly to say only in general it was for the main very much resembling that of Sicily call'd Rupilia LEGE Rupilia or by the Law of RUPILIUS a Cause between one Citizen and another being of the same City was to be try'd at home by their own Laws A Cause between one Provincial and another being of divers Citys was to be try'd by Judges whom the Pretor should appoint by lot What a privat man claim'd of a People or a People of a privat man Book II was to be refer'd to the Senat of som third City Vpon what a Roman claim'd of a Provincial a Provincial was to be appointed Judg. Vpon what a Provincial claim'd of a Roman a Roman was to be appointed Judg. For decision of other Controversys select Judges from among the Romans not out of the Pretorian Cohort but out of such Romans or other Citizens free of Rome as were present in the same Court were to be given In criminal Causes as Violence Peculat or Treason the Law and the manner of proceding was the same in the Provinces as in Rome FOR the Tributs Customs Taxes levys of Men Mony Shipping ordinary or extraordinary for the common defence of the Roman Republic and her Provinces the Consuls Proconsuls or Pretors proceding according to such Decrees of the Senat as were in that case standing or renew'd upon emergent occasions in gathering these lay the Magistracy or office of the Questor if the Proconsul were indispos'd or had more business than he could well turn his hand to Courts of this nature might be held by one or more of his Legats With matter of Religion they meddl'd not every Nation being so far left to the liberty of Conscience that no violence for this cause was offer'd to any man by which means both Jews and Christians at least till the time of the persecuting Emperors had the free exercise of their Religion throout the Roman Provinces This the Jews lik'd well for themselves nor were they troubl'd at the Heathens but to the Christians they always gâ—udg'd the like privilege Thus when they could no otherwise induce PILAT to put Christ to death they accus'd Christ of affecting Monarchy and so afrighted PILAT being a mean condition'd fellow while they threaten'd to let TIBERIUS know he was not Cesar's Friend that he comply'd with their ends But when at Corinth where GALLIO a man of another temper was Proconsul of Achaia they would have bin at this sport again and with a great deal of Tumult had brought PAUL before the Tribunal GALLIO took it not well that they should think he had nothing else to do than to judg of Words and Names and Questions of their Law for he car'd no more for the Disputes between the Christians and the Jews than for those between the Epicureans and the Stoics Wheâ—fore his Lictors drave them from the Tribunal and the officious Corinthians to shew their love to the Proconsul fell on knocking them out of the way of other business NOW tho the Commonwealth of the Achaeans being at this time a Roman Province under the Proconsul GALLIO injoy'd no longer her common Senat Strategus and Demiurges according to the model shown in the former Book yet remain'd each particular City under her antient form of Popular Government so that in these especially at Corinth many of the Greecs being of the same judgment the Jews could not dispute with the Christians without Tumult Of this kind was that which happen'd at Ephesus where Christianity growing so Act. 19. fast that the Silversmiths of DIANA'S Temple began to fear they should lose their Trade the Jews liking better of Heathenism than Christianity set ALEXANDER one of their pack against PAUL THIS place in times when men will understand no otherwise of human story than makes for their ends is fallen happily unto my hand seeing that which I have said of a Roman Province will be thus no less than prov'd out of Scripture For the Chancellor of Ephesus perceiving the Ecclesia so it is in the Original or Assembly as in our Translation uncall'd by the Senat or the Magistracy to Chap. 2 be tumultuously gather'd in the Theater their usual place as in Syracusa and other Citys of meeting betakes himself to appease the People with divers arguments among which he has these First as to matter of Religion You have brought hither says he these men which are neither robbers of Temples Churches our Bible has it before there was any Church to be robb'd nor yet blasphemers of the Goddess In which words seeing that they offering no scandal but only propagating that which was according to their own judgment were not obnoxious to Punishment he shews that every man had liberty of Conscience Secondly as to Law If DEMETRIUS and the Craftsmen which are with him have a matter against any man the Law says he is open Thirdly as to the matter of Government which appears to be of two parts the one Provincial the other Domestic For the former says he there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Proconsuls he speaks in the plural number with relation to the Legats by whom the Proconsul somtimes held his Courts otherwise this Magistrat was but one in a Province as at this time for Asia PUBLIUS SUILIUS and to the latter says he if you desire any thing concerning other matters that is such as appertain to the Government of the City in which the care of the Temple was included it shall be determin'd in a lawful Ecclesia or Assembly of the People By which you may see that notwithstanding the Provincial Government Ephesus tho she was no free City for with a free City the Proconsul had nothing of this kind to do had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Government of her self as those other Citys mention'd in PLINY'S Epistles by the Senat and the People for wherever one of these is nam'd as the Senat by PLINY or the People by LUKE the other is understood When the Chancellor had thus spoken he dismiss'd the Ecclesia It is LUKE'S own word and so often as I have now repeated it so often has he us'd it upon the same occasion Wherfore I might henceforth expect two things of Divines first that it might be acknowleg'd that I have good Authors LUKE and the Chancellor of
or at least som one of the Jethronian Courts THEY us'd also to confer this Ordination som time occasionally and for a season in this manner Receive the gift of judiciary Ordination Maimon Tit. San. cap. 4. or the right of binding and loosing till such time as you return to us in the City Where the Christian Jews still following their former Customs in higher matters as the observation of the Sabbath and of Circumcision even to such a degree that PAUL not to displease them took TIMOTHY and circumcis'd him seem to me to have follow'd this custom who when the Prophets at Antioch had inform'd them that PAUL and BARNABAS were to be separated to an extraordinary work laid their hands upon them and sent them away for otherwise Acts 13. 3. as to Ordination PAUL and BARNABAS had that before at least PAUL by ANANIAS and for any such Precept in the Christian Religion Acts 9. 17. there was none JOSEPHVS PHILO and other Authors that tell us the Commonwealth of Israel was an Aristocracy look no farther than the introduction of the Chirothesia by the Presbyterian Party which must have taken date som time after the Captivity or the restitution of the Commonwealth by EZRA there being not one syllable for it in Scripture but enough to the contrary seeing God introduc'd the Chirotonia By which it is demonstrable that a Presbyterian Party may bring a Popular Government to Oligarchy and deface even the work of God himself so that it shall not be known to after ages as also that Ecclesiastical Writers for such are the Talmudists may pretend that for many hundred years together as Divines also have don to be in Scripture which neither is nor ever was there But have I yet said enough to shew that Ordination especially as in this Example not of a Clergy but of a Magistracy whether by the Chirotonia or Chirothesia is a Political Institution or must I rack my brains for Arguments to prove that an Order or a Law having such influence upon the Commonwealth that being introduc'd or repeal'd it quite alters the whole frame of the Government must needs be of a political nature and therfore not appertain to Divines or to a Clergy but to the Magistrat unless their Traditions may be of force to alter the Government as they please All is one they can abate nothing of it let what will com of the Government the Chirothesia they must and will have Then let them have Monarchy too or Tyranny for one of these according as the balance happens to stand with or against their Chirothesia is the certain consequence either Tyranny as in Israel or Monarchy as in the Papacy and from that or the like Principle in all Book II Gothic Empires which Examples to begin with Israel well deserve the pains to be somwhat more diligently unfolded ALL Elections in Israel save those of the Priests who were eligible by the Lot being thus usurp'd by the Presbyterian Party and the People by that means devested of their Chirotonia som three hundred years before CHRIST HILLEL Senior High Priest and Archon or Prince of the Sanhedrim found means to draw this Power of Ordination in shew somwhat otherwise but in effect to himself and his Maimon Tit. San. cap. 4. Chirothesia for by his influence upon the Sanhedrim it was brought to pass that wheras formerly any man ordain'd might in the manner shewn have ordain'd his Disciples it was now agreed that no man should be ordain'd without the License of the Prince and that this Power should not be in the Prince but in the presence of the Father of the Sanhedrim or Speaker of the House Thus the Aristocracy of Israel becoming first Oligarchical took according to the nature of all such Governments long steps towards Monarchy which succeding in the Asmonean Family commonly call'd the Maccabees was for their great merit in vindicating the Jews from the Tyranny of ANTIOCHUS confirm'd to them by the universal consent and Chirotonia of the People Nevertheless to him that understands the Orders of a Commonwealth or has read the Athenian Lacedemonian or Roman Story it will be plain enough that but for their Aristocracy they needed not to have bin so much beholden to or to have stood so much in need of one Family It is true both the merit of these Princes and the manner of their free Election by the People seem to forbid the name of Tyranny to this Institution but so it is that let there be never so much Merit in the Man or Inclination of the People to the Prince or the Government that is not founded upon the due balance the Prince in that case must either govern in the nature of a Commonwealth as did those of this Family reforming the policy after the Lacedemonian Model or turn Tyrant as from their time who liv'd in the Age of the Grecian Monarchy did all their Successors till under the Romans this Nation became a Province From which time such Indeavors and Insurrections they us'd for the recovery of their antient Policy that under the Emperor ADRIAN who perceiv'd at what their Ordination being not of Priests but of Magistrats and of a Senat pretending to Soverain Judicature and Authority seem'd to aim there came says the Talmud against the Israelites an Edict out of the Kingdom of the Wicked meaning the Roman Empire wherby whosoever should ordain or be ordain'd was to be put to death and the School or City in which such an Act should be don to be destroy'd wherupon Rabbi JEHUDA BEN BABA lest Ordination should fail in Israel went forth and standing between two great Mountains and two great Citys and between two Sabbathdays journys from Osa and Sephara ordain'd five Presbyters For this Feat the Rabbi is remember'd by the Talmudists under the name of Ordinator but the same as it follows being discover'd by the Roman Guards they shot his Body thro with so many Darts as made it like a Sive Yet staid not the business here but so obstinat continu'd the Jews in the Superstition to which this kind of Ordination was now grown that wheras by the same it was unlawful for them to ordain in a foren Land and at home they could not be brought to abstain the Emperor banish'd them all out of their own Country whence happen'd their total Dispersion That of a Chap. 4 thing which at the first was a mere delusion such Religion should com in time and with education to be made that not only they who had receiv'd advantage could suffer Martyrdom but they that had lost by it would be utterly lost for it were admirable in the case of this People if it were not common in the case of most in the World at this day Custom may bring that to be receiv'd as an Ordinance of God for which there is no color in Scripture For to consult MAIMONIDES a little better upon this point Wheras says he they grant in case it
are enacted by the Legislative Orders are call'd Laws TO undertake the binding of a Prince from invading Liberty and yet not to introduce the whole Orders necessary to Popular Government is to undertake a flat contradiction or a plain impossibility Hazard thro the want of Principles A PEOPLE or Assembly not understanding true Principles give least credit to the best Orders and so com to cast themselves upon particular persons for where Orders are not credited there Men must be trusted and where Men are trusted they find themselves so well in their power that they are either for bringing in a Commonwealth by degrees or more probably not at all The desire of bringing in a Commonwealth by degrees arises from want of considering that the whole of a Commonwealth as to charge or trouble is less than the half He who has a Journy to go dos not chuse to have but half a Bridle or but one Boot or Stirrup tho these be fewer things and com but to half the charge because this would but necessitat him to procure more things and perhaps more chargeable or dangerous Optimus ille animi vindex laedentia pectus Vincula qui rupit dedoluitque semel The Conclusion Observing that the Principles of Human Prudence being good without proof of Scripture are nevertheless such as are provable out of Scripture WHO imagins that the Romans govern'd by proof out of Scripture Yet says PETER Submit your selves to Human Prudence 1 Pet. 2. 13. or every Ordinance of Man which relates more particularly to the Government of the Romans The most frequent comparison of a Commonwealth is to a Ship but who imagins that a Ship ought not to be built according to the Art of the Shipwright or govern'd according to the Compass unless these be prov'd out of Scripture Nevertheless as hitherto I have prov'd the principles of Human Prudence in the several parts out of Holy Scripture so I undertake to vindicat them in the whole as to the intire frame of Popular Government in the insuing Book by the same Authority and undeniable Evidence Book II THE SECOND BOOK Containing the COMMONWEALTHS OF THE HEBREWS Namely ELOHIM or the Commonwealth of Israel AND CABALA or the Commonwealth of the Jews The PREFACE Shewing that there were Commonwealths before that of Israel HVMAN Prudence is originally a Creature of God and with respect to its existence as antient as human Nature nor is it so much younger in any of those Effects or Ends for which it was ordain'd by God that we should think Israel to have bin the first Commonwealth or the first Popular Government that ever was or that was planted at least in Canaan for the like Governments in the Countrys therabout there were both before and at the same time It was in Canaan that MELCHISEDEC King and Priest of Salem had reign'd during the time of ABRAHAM who paid him Tithes of all that Tithes originally belonging to Kings 1 Sam. 8. 15 17. he had Now Tithes before Israel and the institution of the Levits belong'd not to any sort of Clergy but to the Prince or State Whence SAMUEL in the description of a King tells the People that he will take the tenth of their Goods Thus ABRAHAM in paying Tithes to MELCHISEDEC acknowledg'd him for his Prince Yet had ABRAHAM The Common-wealth of Salem the right of the Sword and made War with Kings as those of Sodom at his own discretion whence Canaan may seem to have bin a Common-wealth in those days much after the manner of Germany in ours The Chap. 1 five Lords perhaps five Tribuns of the Philistins must needs have bin The Common-wealth of the Philistins som Aristocracy at least of Princes joining in one Body or Commonwealth So Venice in her first Age was under Lords or Tribuns It is little to be doubted but the Government of JETHRO King and Priest of Midian The Common-wealth of Midian was of a like nature with that of MELCHISEDEC or of the Lacedemonian Kings who were also Priests or that the Counsil he gave to MOSES being for the institution of such Judicatcrys as are not proper in a Monarchy was any other than according to the Orders of his own Commonwealth And lest these Governments should seem less popular the Embassadors of the Gibeonits coming to JOSHUA say thus Our Elders The Common-wealth of the Gibeonits Joshua 9. 11. or our Senat and all the Inhabitants of our Country or the popular Assembly of the same spoke to us saying Go meet them and say to them We are your Servants therfore now make a League with us To make a League with a foren Nation evinces Soverain Power and that this League was made by the Senat and the People evinces Gibeon to have bin a Popular Government Such a thing then as Popular Government most undeniably there was before Israel Now whether Israel were a Popular Government or no I shall refer to trial by the insuing Chapter CHAP. I. Shewing that Israel was a Commonwealth Exod. 1. 5. The rise of the Israelitish Government Of the Princes of the Tribes and Princes of Familys IT is said of the Israelits that went first into Egypt All the Souls that Sect. 1 came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy Souls These becoming so many Fathers of Familys and governing their own Familys by Paternal Right it follows that at first they so govern'd the whole People yet not with any soverain Power as may be easily thought in a Country that had a Prince of its own but by way only of direction and advice The People being thus accustom'd to this way as any of these seventy came to dy supply'd his place with another of their Election at least for the probability of this opinion we find mention of MOSES NADAB ABIHU and seventy of the Elders Exod. 24. 9. before the institution of the Israelitish Senat or Sanhedrim To these and to the People MOSES propos'd his Laws So I am sure in the * Haec est lex quam Moses proposuit Deut. 4. 44. and wheras betwixt a Precept and a Command there is a large difference in places more than I can stand to number where the Latin has it praecepit Moses the English has it Moses commanded Latin it is expresly said where by our English Translation it is thus render'd This is the Law and by the Law here is meant no less than the whole Book of Deuteronomy which MOSES set before the Children of Israel whose Assemblys were not always without faction For KORAH DATHAN and ABIRAM with two hundred Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation Men of Renown bandy'd themselves against MOSES and his intended Election of his Brother AARON to the hereditary Priesthood reproaching him says JOSEPHUS Antiq. l. 4. c. 2. that he went about to dispose of this Honor without the Suffrage of the Congregation therby affecting Tyranny and a sly Book II usurpation of the
of the Land as of the measure Now supposing this Law to have bin in the whole and methodically executed the Canaanits must first have bin totally rooted out of the Land of Canaan which Land in that case as som affirm would have afforded to this Commonwealth a Root or Balance consisting of three millions of Acres Hecateus apud Joseph cont Ap. These reckoning the whole People in the twelve Tribes at six hundred and two thousand which is more than upon the later Poll they came to would have afforded to every man four Acres to every one of the Patriarchs upon the poll of the foregoing Catalog where they are sixty four thousand Acres to every one of the Princes of the Tribes fourteen thousand Acres to the Levitical Citys being forty eight each with its Suburbs of four thousand Cubits diameter one hundred thousand Acres and yet for extraordinary Donations as to JOSHUA and CALEB of which kind there were but few som eighty thousand Acres might remain Now it is true four Acres to a man may seem but a small Lot yet the Roman People under Romulus and long after had but two And it may very well be that one Acre in Canaan was worth two in Italy especially about Rome and four in England tho of the best sort and if so it were that four Acres in Palestin were worth sixteen of our best such a Lot at our account might be worth about thirty or forty pounds a year which for a popular share holding that rate thro the whole body of a People was a large proportion By this estimat or what possibly could be allow'd to the Princes of the Tribes and of the Familys their share came not to a sixth of the whole so the rest remaining to the People the Balance of this Government must have bin purely popular It is true that in the whole this Law of MOSES for the division of the Land was never executed but that in the parts som such course was taken is plain for example in the division to seven Tribes where JOSHUA proposes to the People in this manner Give out from among Josh 18. 4. you three men for each Tribe and they shall go thro the Land and describe Book II it The People having resolv'd accordingly these went and pass'd thro the Land and describ'd it by Citys into seven parts in a Book and came again to JOSHUA to the Host at Shiloh And JOSHUA cast Lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord and there JOSHUA divided the Land to the Children of Israel according to their divisions It were absurd to think that this Lot determin'd of proportions for so a mean man might have com to be richer than the Prince of his Tribe but the proportions allotted to Tribes being stated tho at first but by guess and entred into the Lot Book of the Surveyors who says JOSEPHUS were most expert in Geometry the Princes came first to the Urns wherof the one contain'd the names of the Tribes that were to draw the other the names of those parcels of Land that were to be drawn first to a whole Tribe Thus the name of a Tribe for example BENJAMIN being drawn out of one Urn to that name a parcel was drawn out of the other Urn for example the Country lying between Jericho and Bethaven This being don and the Prince of the Tribe having chosen in what one place he would take his stated and agreed proportion whether of fourteen thousand Acres or the like the rest of the Country was subdivided in the Lot Book according to the number of Familys in the Tribe of this Prince and the Parcels subdivided being cast into the one Urn the names of the Patriarchs into the other the same Tribe came again by Familys Thus every Patriarch making choice in what one part of this Lot he would take his agreed proportion whether of four thousand Acres or the like the remainder was again subdivided in the Lot Book according to the number of names in his Family if they were more than the parcel would furnish at four Acres a man then was that defect amended by addition out of the next parcel and if they were fewer then the overplus was cast into the next parcel By such means the People came or might have com in the whole and in every part to the Lot of their Inheritance while every Tribe that was thus planted became local Num. 36. 3. without removal Neither shall the Inheritance remove from one Tribe to another Tribe but every one of the Tribes of the Children of Israel shall keep himself to his own Inheritance Sect. 13 The Portion of Levi. Josh 21. 4 5 6. Num. 18. 20. Deut. 10. 9. Deut. 18. 1. THE Tribes thus planted or to have bin planted were twelve The thirteenth or that of LEVI came in the like manner to the Lot for their forty eight Citys with their Suburbs and receiv'd them accordingly as the Lot came forth for the Familys of the Kohathits and the rest These Israel gave to the Levits out of their Inheritance That is these were such as the twelve Tribes before the division set apart for the Levits with the Tithes and the Offerings which tho this Tribe had no other Lands made their portion by far the best The Tribes being henceforth reckon'd by their locality and these forty eight Citys being scatter'd throout the twelve Tribes that of LEVI was no more computed as a distinct Tribe but lost as it were the name yet with advantage for to their promiscuous abode they had the right of promiscuous marriage no more in this point Ezek. 44. 22. being injoin'd any of them than to take Maidens of the Seed of Israel or at least the Widows of Priests And as in the Tribes where they dwelt they had promiscuous Marriage so had they right of promiscuous Election that is of electing and being elected into all the Magistracys and Offices of the Commonwealth which they so frequently injoy'd that the Sanhedrim is somtimes understood by their names If there arises a matter too hard for thee in judgment thou shalt Chap. 2 com to the Priests the Levits Between the Law and the Religion of Deut. 17. 8. this Government there was no difference whence all Ecclesiastical persons were also Political persons of which the Levits were an intire Tribe set more peculiarly apart to God the King of this Common-wealth from all other cares except that only of his Government Thus MOSES did that with the safety of Liberty in Israel which LYCURGUS could not do in Lacedemon but by condemning the Helots to perpetual Slavery For wheras without these to be Tillers of the Ground the Citizens of Lacedemon could not be at leisure for the Commonwealth the Children of Israel might imploy themselves in their domestic Affairs as they requir'd with safety while the Levits bore the burden of the Government or in case either their privat Affairs permitted or their
Ambition promted were equally capable of Magistracy Citys of Refuge Num. 35. OF the Levitical Citys three beyond and three on this side Jordan Sect. 14 were Citys of Refuge If a man was slain the next of kindred by the Laws of Israel was the Avenger of Blood and to the Avenger of Blood it was lawful to slay him that slew his Kinsman wherever he could find him except only in a City of Refuge For this cause if a man had slain another he fled immediatly to one of these Sanctuarys whence nevertheless the Judges in the Gates within whose proper verge the Crime was committed caus'd the Malefactor to be brought before them by a Guard and judg'd between the Slayer and the Avenger of Blood If that which we call Murder or Manslaughter was prov'd against him by two Witnesses he was put to death but if it was found as we say Chancemedly he was remanded with a Guard to the City of Refuge whence if before the Death of the High Priest he was found wandring it was lawful not only for the Avenger of Blood but for any man else to slay him The High Priest being dead he return'd not home only but to his Inheritance also with liberty and safety If a Priest had slain a man his Refuge was the Sanctuary whence nevertheless he was taken by the Sanhedrim and if upon trial he was found guilty of wilful Murder put to death If a man coms presumtuously upon his Neighbor to slay Exod. 21. 14. him with guile thou shalt take him from my Altar that he may dy The Jubile INHERITANCES being thus introduc'd by the Lot were immovably Sect. 15 intail'd on the Proprietors and their Heirs for ever by the institution of the Jubile or the return of Lands however sold or ingag'd once in fifty years to the antient Proprietor or his lawful Heir Yet remain'd there two ways wherby Lots might be accumulated the one by casual Inheritance the other by marriage with an Heiress as in the case Num. 36. of ZELOPHEDAD or of his Daughters NOW to bring the whole result of these historical parts thus prov'd Sect. 16 to the true Political Method or Form the Commonwealth instituted by MOSES was according to this Model The Model of the Common-wealth of Israel THE whole People of Israel thro a popular distribution of the Land of Canaan among themselves by lot and the fixation of such a popular Balance by their Agrarian Law or Jubile intailing the inheritance of each Proprietor upon his Heirs for ever was locally divided into twelve Tribes Book II EVERY Tribe had a double capacity the one Military the other Civil A TRIBE in its Military capacity consisted of one Staff or Standard of the Camp under the leading of its distinct and hereditary Prince as Commander in chief and of its Princes of Familys or chief Fathers as Captains of thousands and Captains of hundreds A TRIBE in its Political capacity was next and immediatly under the government of certain Judicatorys sitting in the Gates of its Citys each of which consisted of twenty three Elders elected for life by free suffrage THE Soverain Power and common Ligament of the twelve Tribes was the Sanhedrim of Israel and the Ecclesia Dei or Congregation of the Lord. THE Sanhedrim was a Senat consisting of seventy Elders for life so instituted by the free Election of six Competitors in and by each Tribe every Elder or Senator of the Sanhedrim being taken out of this number of Competitors by the Lot THE Congregation of the Lord was a Representative of the People of Israel consisting of twenty four thousand for the term of one month and perpetuated by the monthly Election of two thousand Deputys of the People in each Tribe THE Sanhedrim upon a Law made was a standing Judicatory of Appeal from the Courts in the Gates throout the Tribes and upon a Law to be made whatever was propos'd by the Sanhedrim and resolv'd in the affirmative by the Congregation of the Lord was an Act of the Parlament of Israel Deut. 4. 5 6. OF this Frame says MOSES to the People as well he might Behold I have taught you Statutes and Judgments even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the Land whither you go to possess it Keep therfore and do them for this is your Wisdom and your Vnderstanding in the sight of the Nations which shall hear all these Statutes and say Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding People In another place upon the Peoples observing this form he pronounces all the choicest Blessings and in case of violation of the same a long enumeration of most dreadful Curses among which he Deut. â—8 36. has this The Lord shall bring thee and thy King which thou shalt set over thâ—e to a Nation which neither thou nor thy Fathers have known and there shalt thou serve other Gods Wood and Stone In which words first he charges the King upon the People as a Creature of their own and next opposes his Form pointblank to Monarchy as is farther apparent in the whole Antithesis running throout that Chapter To the neglect of these Orders may be apply'd those words of DAVID I have said that ye are Gods but ye shall dy like Men and fall like one of the Princes But this Government can with no countenance of Reason or testimony of Story give any man ground to argue from the Frame thus instituted by MOSES that a Commonwealth rightly order'd and establish'd may by any internal cause arising from such Orders be broken or dissolv'd it being most apparent that this was never establish'd in any such part as could possibly be holding MOSES dy'd in the Wilderness and tho JOSHUA bringing the People into the promis'd Land did what he could during his Life towards the establishment of the Form design'd by MOSES yet the hands of the Peopl e specially after the death of JOSHUA grew slack and they Chap. 3 rooted not out the Canaanits which they were so often commanded to do and without which it was impossible their Commonwealth should take any root Nevertheless settled as it could be it was in som parts longer liv'd than any other Government has yet bin as having continu'd in som sort from MOSES to the dispersion of the Jews in the Reign of the Emperor ADRIAN being about one thousand seven hundred years But that it was never establish'd according to the necessity of the Form or the true intent of MOSES is that which must be made farther apparent throout the sequel of the present Book and first in the state of the Israelits under their Judges CHAP. III. Shewing the Anarchy or State of the Israelits under their Judges A full Description of the Representative of the People of Israel 1 Chr. 27. THE Frame of that which I take to have bin the ordinary Congregation Sect. 1 or Representative of the People of Israel is not perfectly
Jewish Sanhedrim The Providence of God in the different way of Apostolical Ordination NOW in these several ways of Ordination there is a most remarkable Sect. 5 Providence of God For wheras States and Princes in receiving of Religion are not at any point so jealous as of an incroachment upon their Power the first way of Apostolical Ordination destroys Monarchical Power the last wholly excludes the Power of the People and the second has a mixture which may be receiv'd by a Commonwealth or by a Monarchy But where it is receiv'd by a Commonwealth the imposition of hands coms to little and where it is receiv'd by a Monarchy the Election of the People coms to nothing as may be farther consider'd in the original and progress of the Conge d' Elire THE ways of Ordination or of Church Government lying thus in Scripture the not receiving of the Christian Religion is not that wherof any State or Prince thro the whole world can be any ways excusable The Conclusion Shewing that neither GOD nor CHRIST or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Vses of this Book TO sum up this second Book in the Uses that may be made of it Sect. 1 Certain it is of the Greec and Roman Storys that he who has not som good Idea or Notion of the Government to which they relate cannot rightly understand them If the like holds as to the Scripture Story som light may be contributed to it by this Book Again if som gifted Men happening to read it should chance to be of the same judgment it is an Argument for acquir'd Learning in that for the means of acquir'd Learning and in the means of acquir'd Learning for Universitys For how little soever this performance be had it not bin the fashion with the English Gentry in the breeding of their Sons to give them a smack of the University I should not have don so much The present use of this Book BUT letting these pass If there were Commonwealths or Governments Sect. 2 exercising Soverain Power by the Senat and the People before that of Israel as namely Gibeon If the inferior Orders and Courts in Israel as those instituted by MOSES after the advice of JETHRO a Heathen were transcrib'd out of another Government tho Heathen as namely that of Midian If the order of the Church introduc'd by CHRIST in his twelve Apostles and his seventy Disciples were after the pattern of Israel namely in the twelve Princes of the Tribes and the seventy Elders If there were three distinct ways of Ordination introduc'd by the Apostles one exactly according to the Ballot of Israel as namely in the Ordination of MATTHIAS another exactly according to the way of the Jewish Sanhedrim or Synagog as namely that of TIMOTHY and a third compos'd of these two as namely that of the Deacons Then is it a clear and undeniable result of the whole That neither GOD nor CHRIST Book II or the APOSTLES ever instituted any Government Ecclesiastical or Civil upon any other Principles than those only of Human Prudence Sect. 3 The Consequence of this Vse AN Observation of such consequence as where it has bin rightly consider'd there the truth of Religion and of Government once planted have taken root and flourish'd and where it has not bin rightly heeded there has Religion or the pretence of it bin the hook and the line and the State the prey of Impostors and false Prophets as was shewn in the hypocritical Pharises for ever stigmatiz'd by the word of Truth AND for Might let her be never so much exalted in her self let her Sword be never so dreadfully brandish'd the Government not founded upon Reason a Creature of God and the Creature of God whose undoubted right in this part is by himself undeniably avow'd and asserted is a Weapon fram'd against God and no Weapon fram'd against God shall prosper Sect. 4 A transition to the next Book THE Principles of Human Prudence and in them the Art of Lawgiving being shewn in the first Book and vindicated throout the whole course of Scripture by this second I com in the third to shew a Model of Government fram'd according to the Art thus shewn and the Principles thus vindicated THE THIRD BOOK CONTAINING A MODEL OF Popular Government Practically propos'd according to Reason confirm'd by the Scripture and agreable to the present Balance or State of Property in England The PREFACE Containing a Model of Popular Government propos'd Notionally THERE is between the Discourses of such as are commonly call'd Natural Philosophers and those of Anatomists a large difference the former are facil the latter difficult Philosophers discoursing of Elements for example that the Body of Man consists of Fire Air Earth and Water are easily both understood and credited seeing by common Experience we find the Body of Man returns to the Earth from whence it was taken A like Entertainment may befal Elements of Government as in the first of these Books they are stated But the fearful and wonderful making the admirable structure and great variety of the parts of man's Body in which the Discourses of Anatomists are altogether conversant are understood by so few that I may say they are not understood by any Certain it is that the delivery of a Model of Government which either must be of no effect or imbrace all those Muscles Nerves Arterys and Bones which are necessary to any Function of a well order'd Commonwealth is no less than political Anatomy If you com short of this your Discourse is altogether ineffectual if you com home you are not understood you may perhaps be call'd a learned Author but you are obscure and your Doctrin is impracticable Had I only suffer'd in this and not the People I should long since have left them to their humor but seeing it is they that suffer by it and not my self I will be yet Book III more a fool or they shall be yet wiser Now coms into my head what I saw long since upon an Italian Stage while the Spectators wanted Hoops for their sides A Country fellow came with an Apple in his hand to which in a strange variety of faces his Teeth were undoubtedly threaten'd when enter'd a young Anatomist brimful of his last Lesson who stopping in good time the hand of this same Country fellow would by no means suffer him to go on with so great an Enterprize till he had first nam'd and describ'd to him all the Bones Nerves and Muscles which are naturally necessary to that motion at which the good man being with admiration plainly chopfallen coms me in a third who snatching away the Apple devour'd it in the presence of them both If the People in this case wherof I am speaking were naturally so well furnish'd I had here learn'd enough to have kept silence but their eating in the political way of absolute necessity requires the
the Prince or Head of the Sanhedrim receiv'd him in by Imposition of Hands The Government of the Iconians was Popular that of the Jews was Aristocratical therfore the Iconians receiving the Christian Faith were bound to change their Democracy into Aristocracy The Apostles to comply with an Oligarchy had alter'd that Ordination which originally as at the Election of MATTHIAS was popular to Aristocracy therfore being now to plant the Gospel in a free State they might not alter it from Aristocracy to Democracy To please the Jews they might change for the worse therfore to please the Iconians they might not charge for the better Chap. 5 but must tell the People plainly That they were not to dispute but to believe and receive the Institutions as well as Doctrins that were brought them from the Metropolis How would this sound to a People that understood themselves Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas THE right temper of a Metropolitan to whom Popular Power is a Heathen Custom and with whom nothing will agree but Princeing of it in the Senat But with the Apostles it was otherwise who making no words of the Chirothesia where it was needless were glad of this occasion to chirotonize or elect them Elders in every Congregation by Popular Suffrage But this they will say is not to com off from the haunt but to run still upon the People in a common or public capacity Tho the Scripture speaks of great Multitudes believing believe it there is no such thing CLEMENS says they were very few their Assemblys privat and very scanty things As privat as they were by the judgment of Divines they were it seems to receive from their Pattern if that were the Sanhedrim a Form that was public enough and why might not they have receiv'd this from that public Form wherto they were accustom'd rather than from a foren Policy and one contrary to their Customs why should they suffer such Power in new and privat as they would not indure in their old and public Magistrats Or if they receiv'd the Scriptures why should they chuse that Ordination which would fit them worst rather than that which would fit them best that of TIMOTHY rather than that of MATTHIAS Or let their Assemblys have bin never so privat or scanty yet if the Apostles chirotoniz'd them Elders in every Congregation is it not demonstrable that they did receive that of MATTHIAS and not that of TIMOTHY THUS much for the Propagation of the pure or first kind of Ecclesiastical Policy to the Citys of Lycaonia The mix'd or second kind into which the Christian Presbytery delighting to follow the steps of the Jewish the former might soon degenerat continu'd in the primitive Church to speak with the least for WALLEUS brings it down to CHARLES the Great three hundred years after CHRIST which Assertion in Mr. HOBS prov'd out of AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS Dr. HAMMOND has either willingly overseen or includes in this Answer it is most visibly void of all appearance of Truth §. 138. Wherfore to the Quotation mention'd I shall add the words of PLATINA DAMASUS the second by Nation a Bavarian sirnam'd BAGNIARIUS or as som will POPO possess'd himself of the Papacy by force and without consent of the Clergy and of the People Now what can be clearer than that by this place the Clergy and the People had hitherto a right to elect the Pope The Doctor coms near the word of defiance to Mr. HOBS in a matter of fact so apparent to any judgment that I need not add what gos before in the Life of CLEMENT the second where the Emperor ingages the People of Rome not to meddle with the Election of the Pope without his express Command nor what follows after in LEO the Ninth where the whole power of Election was now confer'd by the Emperor upon the Clergy Again VICTOR the Second says the same Author obtain'd the Papacy rather by favor of the Emperor than by free Suffrages of the Clergy and the People of Rome who apprehended the power of the Emperor whose displeasure they had somtime incurr'd by creating Popes So then the People it is clear had hitherto Book II created the Popes The power of Election thus in the whole Clergy came afterwards as at this day to be restrain'd to the Cardinals only and so to devolve into the third kind of Ordination exactly correspondent to the Sanhedrim and their Chirothesia as it was exercis'd among the converted Jews when TIMOTHY was ordain'd by the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery NOW this is that with which of all others Divines are so inamor'd that they will not indure it should be said there is any other It is also propitious above all the rest to Monarchy as that which according to the inherent nature or impotence of Oligarchy must have a Prince at home or abroad to rest upon or becom the inevitable Prey of the People Herein lys the Arcanum or Secret of that Antipathy which is between a Clergy and a Popular Government and of that Sympathy which is between the Miter and the Crown A Prince receiving a Clergy with the Monopoly of their Chirothesia has no more to do than to make a Metropolitan by whom he governs them and by them the People especially if he indows them with good Revenues for so they becom an Estate of his Realm and a more steddy Pillar of his Throne than his Nobility themselves who as their dependence is not so strong are of a more stirring nature This is the Gothic Model from whence we had our Pattern and in which No Bishop no King THUS for the dignity of Ecclesiastical Policys whether in Scripture or Human Prudence Popular Government you see is naturally inclin'd to the very best and the spiritual Aristocracy to the very worst It is also remarkable that the Political Balance extends it self to the decision of the question about Ordination For as a People never offer'd to dispute with a well-balanc'd Clergy so a Clergy dismounted never gain'd any thing by disputing with the People As to the question of Empire or Government I propheti disarmati Rovivano the Apostles became all things to all His own words to Mr. Hobs. §. 122. THVS beyond all measure improsperous are this Divine'sVndertakings against Mr. HOBS and theVndertakings of Divines upon this Subject Advertisment to the Reader or Direction to the Answerer THE Answer of this Book must ly in proving that the Apostles at the several times and places mention'd introduc'd but one way of Ordination and that the same to which Divines now pretend or if the Apostles divided that is to say introduc'd divers ways of Ordination then the People or Magistrat may chuse I HAVE taken the more leisure and pains to state I think all the Cases of Controversy that can arise out of the Commonwealth of Oceana as you have seen in these two Books to the end I may be no more oblig'd to
write and yet not omit writing on any occasion that shall be offer'd for if my Principles be overthrown which when I see I shall most ingenuously confess with thanks to the Author such an acknowlegement will ly in a little room and this failing I am deceiv'd if I shall not now be able to shew any Writer against me that his Answer is none within the compass of three or four sheets THIS also will be the fittest way for Boys-play with which I am sure enough to be entertain'd by the quibling University men I mean a certain busy Gang of 'em who having publicly vanted that they would bring 40 examples against the Balance and since laid their Caps together about it have not produc'd one These vants of theirs offering prejudice to truth and good Principles were the cause why they were indeed press'd to shew som of their skill not that they were thought fit Judges of these things but first that they had declar'd themselves so and next that they may know they are not An Answer to three Objections against Popular Government that were given me after these two Books were printed Object 1. MONARCHICAL Government is more natural because we see even in Commonwealths that they have recourse to this as Lacedemon in her Kings Rome both in her Consuls and Dictators and Venice in her Dukes Answer GOVERNMENT whether Popular or Monarchical is equally artificial wherfore to know which is more natural we must consider what piece of Art coms nearest to Nature as for example whether a Ship or a House be the more natural and then it will be easy to resolve that a Ship is the more natural at Sea and a House at Land In like manner where one man or a few men are the Landlords a Monarchy must doubtless be the more natural and where the whole People are the Landlords a Commonwealth for how can we understand that it should be natural to a People that can live of themselves to give away the means of their livelihood to one or a few men that they may serve or obey Each Government is equally artificial in effect or in it self and equally natural in the cause or the matter upon which it is founded A COMMONWEALTH consists of the Senat proposing the People resolving and the Magistracy executing so the Power of the Magistrats whether Kings as in Lacedemon Consuls as in Rome or Dukes as in Venice is but barely executive but to a Monarch belongs both the Result and Execution too wherfore that there have bin Dukes Consuls or Kings in Commonwealths which were quite of another nature is no Argument that Monarchical Government is for this cause the more natural AND if a man shall instance in a mix'd Government as King and Parlament to say that the King in this was more natural than the Parlament must be a strange Affirmation TO argue from the Roman Dictator an Imperfection which ruin'd that Commonwealth and was not to be found in any other that all Commonwealths have had the like recourse in exigences to the like remedy is quite contrary to the universal Testimony of Prudence or Story A MAN who considers that the Commonwealth of Venice has stood one thousand years which never any Monarchy did and yet shall affirm that Monarchical Government is more natural than Popular must affirm that a thing which is less natural may be more durable and permanent than a thing that is more natural WHETHER is a Government of Laws less natural than a Government of Men or is it more natural to a Prince to govern by Laws or by Will Compare the Violences and bloody Rapes perpetually made upon the Crown or Royal Dignity in the Monarchys of the Hebrews and the Romans with the State of the Government under either Commonwealth and tell me which was less violent or whether that which is more violent must therfore be more natural Object 2. THE Government of Heaven is a Monarchy so is the Government of Hell Answer IN this says MACCHIAVEL Princes lose themselves and their Empire that they neither know how to be perfectly good nor intirely wicked He might as well have said that a Prince is always subject to Error and Misgovernment because he is a Man and not a God nor a Devil A Shepherd to his Flock a Plowman to his Team is a better Nature and so not only an absolute Prince but as it were a God The Government of a better or of a superior Nature is to a worse or inferior as the Government of God The Creator is another and a better Nature than the Creature the Government in Heaven is of the Creator over his Creatures that have their whole dependence upon him and subsistence in him Where the Prince or the Few have the whole Lands there is somwhat of dependence resembling this so the Government there must of necessity be Monarchical or Aristocratical But where the People have no such dependence the causes of that Government which is in Heaven are not in Earth for neither is the Prince a distinct or better Nature than the People nor have they their subsistence by him and therfore there can be no such effect If a Man were good as God there is no question but he would be not only a Prince but a God would govern by Love and be not only obey'd but worship'd or if he were ill as the Devil and had as much power to do mischief he would be dreaded as much and so govern by Fear To which latter the Nature of man has so much nearer approaches that tho we never saw upon Earth a Monarchy like that of Heaven yet it is certain the perfection of the Turkish Policy lys in this that it coms nearest to that of Hell Object 3. GOD instituted a Monarchy namely in MELCHIZEDEC before he instituted a Commonwealth Answer IF MELCHIZEDEC was a King so was ABRAHAM too tho one that paid him Tithes or was his Subject for ABRAHAM made War or had the power of the Sword as the rest of the Fathers of Familys he fought against So if CANAAN was a Monarchy in those days it was such a one as Germany is in these where the Princes also have as much the right of the Sword as the Emperor which coms rather as has bin shewn already to a Commonwealth But whether it were a Monarchy or a Commonwealth we may see by the present state of Germany that it was of no very good Example nor was MELCHIZEDEC otherwise made a King by God than the Emperor that is as an Ordinance of Man THE ART OF LAWGIVING In Three BOOKS The First shewing the Foundations and Superstructures of all kinds of Government The Second shewing the Frames of the Commonwealths of Israel and of the Jews The Third shewing a Model fitted to the present State or Balance of this Nation The Order of the Work The First Book THE Preface considering the Principles or Nature of Family