This Watchfulness to Prevent Mischief any hinderance to the Readinesse of the Nation to Suppresse it The Nobility and Gentry that held by Knights-Service were still to be Ready with Horse and Armes at any Summons and upon pein of Forfeiture to attend the King or his Lieutenant Generall either at Home or Abroad for Forty Dayes at their proper Charge If That were not sufficient the King had the whole Body of the Common People for his Infantry and an unquestionable Right by his Commissions of Array to put the Nation in a Posture from Eighteen to Threescore Beside his Navall Guards to cleere the Seas and watch the Coast And This without any Dispute in those blessed days who should be judg of the Danger As Nothing was here wanting to the Security of the Nation which good Lawes could Contritribute so was there as little wanting to the Felicity of the People in regard of the Constitution of the Government If it be True as Salust sayes that the Desire of Rule is the Cause of Warr Where there 's no place for such Desire there can be consequently no Cause of Quarrell At least there can be no Ambitious Cause the Canker of Great Minds and deadly Enemy of all Politique Settlements This is the Happy case betwixt the King of England and the People Ambition presses forward still and he that 's Uppermost already is above it The Object of it is Conquest not Tyranny and in a Monarch as I have said else-where rather Enlargement of Empire then of Prerogative The People on the Other side They are as much Below it For the Nobility stands betwixt Them and Home and 't is not for a Faction to take Two Stairs at a step So that Their Businesse is but Freedome from Oppression without the least Thought of Dominion Yet Differences break out and Bloudy ones which by a Grosse Mistake we are too subject to assign unto Wrong Causes If ye would know the Right Cui prodest Scelus ille fecit The Gayners by a Publique Ruine are commonly the Contrivers of it and in all Wrangles betwixt the Royall and the Popular Interest we may observe that a Third Party reaps the Fruit of Their Division and seizes the Booty The People only giving in Exchange for the Name of Liberty the Substance of it sinking a Monarchy into an Oligarchy and slipping the Nooze of One Government to be Halter'd in another Were not the Multitude directly Mad they would understand that Their Well-beeing is so Inseparable from the King 's and His from Theirs that the One cannot long survive the Ruines of the Other And that when ever They Divide the Factious part of the Nobility deceives them Both. Therefore why should They either design upon the King or suspect His designing upon Them Touching the Peerage I think we may consider them under this Note of Participation either as Petty Kings or Powerfull Subjects In the One Capacity they may seem Dangerous to the People in the Other to the King If they presume on This hand The Commons are to Assist the King If They bear hard on the Other the King is to help the Commons by virtue of which Mediating mixture of Power in the Nobility as to the People and of Subjection as to the King together with the mutuall Need and Interest of a Fair Understanding betwixt King and Commons All Parties are Secur'd to the utmost possibility of Safety and Satisfaction Yet after all This There may be Danger of an Aristocracy But concerning Government and the severall Formes of it in all their Latitudes and Limitations the Rights and Interests of Kings and the Bounds of Subjects more then enough is said already and the Ball toss'd so long till both the Gamesters and By-standers are sick of the Dispute This Constitution which we have here represented so Eminent both for Defence and Comfort was neverthelesse by a Mean Wretched Faction undermin'd and yet no Age could ever boast greater examples of Love Faith and Duty of Christian Civill or of Military Virtues then were among the Assertours of That Government But all This stresse of Armes and Arguments was not sufficient to uphold the King the Church the Law the Freedome and the Honour of the Nation Their Actings were enough to Cleere the Cause but not to carry it for they Began too Late The Storme was Gather'd and the Shipp of the Publique engag'd among a Thousand Rocks before the Mariners would believe the Danger Accomâ—ting it in Truth too Little to be Consider'd till it was too Great to be Resisted But reserving the more Particular Accompt of the Late Kings Fate for the next Chapter Let us at present look about us where we are yes and Above us too for we have cause of Fear both from Divinity and Reason In This Place now do I expect Observatours in Abundance Here a Marginall Note for Taxing the Government There a for a Scandalum Magnatum And in fine Twenty Peevish Glosses upon my plain and harmlesse Meaning But let no man clap a false Bias upon my Bowle and carry That to the Wall that was Intended to the Hedg Yet let every man take his course I shall not begg so much as a Favourable Construction but readily submit every Syllable and Action of my Life in what concerns my Duty to my Prince and Countrey to the Extremest Rigour Only a Page or Two of good Advice to my Back-friends and I Proceed Good People of what Sort or Quality soever ye are Pray'e do not spare Me if you can do me any mischief but spare your selves if you cannot You that have formerly abus'd Me to the King do so no more For when he comes to find himself Betray'd by your Mis-enformations and Distress'd for want of Those plain honest Offices which so God save me I have ever Meant and Pay'd him with the strict Faith and Reverence of a Subject Will not his Sacred Majesty abhorr you fâ—r it Or if ye are Resolved to Try the utmost force of Power and Calumny upon a Poor and Single Innocent be sure ye be no Advocates for the Kings Murtherers at the same time that ye are of Counsel against his Friends â—he People will suspect you to be of the wrong side else Again since Proofs in Matters of Fact are so Easie and in Poynts of Honour so Necessary Prove what ye say or say Nothing for wherein I am Faultlesse I am a Fool if I cannot clear my self and a Slave if I do not Consider next What if ye crush me May not the Consequence of That Injustice prove Dangerous to your Selves Beside I am not now Now to Learn what 't is to Suffer for my Duty But above all Remember There 's a God that knows your Souls and Mine And at the worst to his Infallible Decision shall I remit my Innocence Now must I arm my self against These Objections Whom does This Sawcy Fellow mean
with lâ—mitations consistent with the Rights of Parliament and People and that for quiet sake they would transact with the Persons then sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament during that Session The House proceeded by Degrees to make dangerous Inspections into the Militia the Revenue to look into the Exorbicances of Major Generals to threaten the Excise and finally by all Popular pretenses to engage the Multitude Effectually against both Protector and Army enduring the Government neither of the One nor of the Other Whereupon the Officers set up a Counsel at Wallingford-House the Protector advises at White-hall and Aprill 6. 1659. comes a Paper to Richard from the Generall Counsell of Officers Entituled A Representation and Petition c. importing the great danger of Good Old Cause is in from Enemies of all sorts the Poverty of the Souldiery the Persecution of Tender consciences c. which Particulars they Petition his Highnesse to represent to the Parliament with their Desire of Speedy Supply and Certainty of Pay for the future Declaring likewise their Resolution with their Lives and Fortunes to stand by and assist his Highness and Parliament in the plucking the Wicked out of their places wheresoever they may be discovered c. The Paper boded a Purge at least Sign'd it was by 230 Officers presented by Fleetwood Publish'd throughout the Army and followed soon after with a Day of Humiliation the never-failing Sign of Mischief at hand In this Juncture Each of the Three Parties was Enemy to the Other Two saving where Either Two were united to Maintein themselves against the Third and All Three of Them Enemies to the Good of the Nation The House being Biass'd for a Common-wealth and not yet enabled to go Through with it Dreaded the Army on the one hand and Hated the Single-Person on the Other Richard finding his Power limited by the Members and Envy'd by the Officers willing to please Both and Resolv'd to Hazzard nothing becomes a Common Property to the House and Army a Friend to Both by Turns Theirs to day T' others to Morrow and in all Tryals Meekly submitting to the Dispensation The Army on the other side had their Protector 's Measure to a Hair and behind him they Stalk'd to Ruffle That Faction in the House that was now grown so Bold with the Military Interest and it behov'd them to be quick with as the Case stood Then so Popular an Enemy The Members kept their Ground and April 18. pass'd These following Votes First That during the sitting of the Parliament there should be no General Counsell or meeting of the Officers of the Army without Direction Leave and Authority of his Highnesse the Lord Protector and Both Houses of Parliament Secondly That no Person shall Have and Continue any Command or Trust in any of the Armies or Navies of England Scotland or Ireland or any of the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging who shall refuse to Subscribe That he will not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament of any the Members of either House of Parliament or their freedom in their Debates and Counsels Upon These Peremptory Votes Richard Faces about joyning his small Authority to forbid their Meetings and great Assurances are Enterchang'd to stand the Shock of any Opposition Two or three dayes they stood upon their Guards continuing in that sharling Posture till April 22. when Richard at the suit or rather menace of Disborough and his Fellows signes a Commission to Dissolve his Parliament which to prevent the Members Adjourn for Three dayes and to avoid the shame of falling by an Enemy thâ— Catoe's kill themselves For at the Three dayes end they finde the Dore shut and a Guard upon the Passage to tell them They must Sit no more Their Dissolution being also Published by Proclamation His Highness steps aside next and now the Army undertakes the Government They Modell Cast about Contrive and after some Ten Dayes fooling with the Politiques they found it was much a harder matter to Compose a Government than to Disorder it and at This Plunge besought the Lord after their Wandrings and Back slidings to shew them where they turned out of the Way and where the Good Spirit left the Good Old Cause that through Mercy they might Return and give the Lord the Glory At last they call to mind that the Long Parliament sitting from 1648. to 1653. were eminent Assertâ—urs of that Cause and had a Speciall Presence of God with them Wherefore they Earnestly desire Those Members to Return to the Exercise of their Trust c. This is the Tenor of that Canting Declaration which the Army-Officers presented Lenthall the Good-Old-Speaker with at the Rolls May 6. in the Evening where a Resolve was taken by several of the Members to meet next morning in the Painted Chamber and There to advise about their Sitting They met accordingly and made a shift by Raking of Goals to get together a Quorum and so they sneak'd into the House of Commons and There Declar'd for a Common-wealth passing a Vote expresly against the Admission of the Members Secluded in 1648. This Device was far-fetch'd and not long-liv'd but These were Old Stagers and no ill Menagers of their Time To make short they Erect a Counsel of State Place and Displace mould their Faction settle the Godly appoint their Committees and so soon as ever they are Warm in their Gears begin where they left in 1653 Fleecing the Nation and Flaying the Cavaliers as briskly as if 't were but the Good-Morrow to a Six-Years Nap. But the sad Wretches were filthily mistaken to think Themselves brought in again to do their own Business for the Army makes bold to Cut them out their work in a Petition of May 12. containing 15. Proposals desiring First a Free-state 2. Râ—gulation of Law and Courts 3. An Act of Oblivion since April 19. 1653. 4. All Lawes c. since 1653. to stand good untill particularly Repeal'd 5. Publique Debts since 1653. to be Paid 6. Liberty of Worship c. not extending to Popery or Prelacy 7. A Preaching Ministry 8. The Reformation of Schools and Universities 9. the Exclusion of Cavaliers and loose Persons from Places of Power or Trust. 10. The Employment of the Godly in such Places 11. To provide for a Succession of the Legislative Authority 12. That Charles Fleetwood be Commander in Chief at Land 13. That the Legislative Power be in a Representative of the People and of a Select Senate Coordinate in Power 14. That the Executive-Power be in a Counsell of State 15. That the Debts of his Late Highness and his Father contracted since Decemb. 15. 1653. may be satisfi'd and Twenty Thousand Pounds per Annum setled upon him half for Life and half to him and his Heirs for ever The Principal point was Fleetwoods Command which they agreed to only reserving the Supreme Power to Themselves and constituting the Speaker
Particular Every single Person has Nine Spies upon him Another means which as I hear is now in Agitation may be the Assurance both of Reward and Pardon to the First Discoverer of a Conspiracy though one of the Complotters and This by Proclamation Sir Francis Bacon ' s advice is that the King either by himself which were the Best or by his Chancellour should make use of the Iudges in their Circuits Charging them at their Going forth according to Occurrences and receiving from them a Particular Accompt at their Return home They would Then sayes he be the best Intelligencers of the True State of the Kingdome and the surest means to prevent or remove all growing Mischieves within the Body of the Realm To These Generall excogitations of Prudence somewhat of more Particular relation to the matter in Question might be admitted as â—â—rst an Expresse Abrenunciation of Their Cause and Covenant They do not Deserve their Lives sure that refuse to confesse their Fault As to the Relief of Distressed Royallists I speak of such as want almost to the Degree of Perishing and there are many such 'T is but time Lost to Hunt for new wayes of Device and Project when every Bush is Beat already If it migh but now seem as Reasonable to allow them the Benefit of Forfeitures made since the Act of Indemnity as it did erewhile seem Convenient to debar them of all Remedy for Injuries suffered before it That might in some Proportion stay their Barking stomacks or at least yield them This spiteful Comfort not to fall Alone But possibly if This Course were Experimented it would afford more then the World Imagines I should End this Chapter here but that before I break off This Discourse I think 't is â—it to give some Reasons why I undertook it First it may serve to Those in Power as a Memorial or Note of certain Particulars which deserve not to be Neglected or Forgotten Next it may serve to instruct the People concerning the true Cause of some Miscariages which Popular and Licentious Ignorance is but too apt to place elsewere for in Truth there are many peevish Circumstances which the Discreet Pause upon and the Vulgar neither like nor understand In the Last Place I reckon my self bound by my Duty to the King and Nation not to conceal what I have here Declar'd And Particularly That Treasons are Encouraged by Impunity The Offenders Countenanced and brought off The Prosecutours Menaced and the most Pestilent Enemies of the last King as good as Protected in their Seditious Practises against This. If This falls into a Good hand good use may be made of it for I doe not speak at Guesse However at the worst Our Cause is the same Our Duty the same and our Affections ought to be the same The Sun is not lesse kind because his Influence may be intercepted by a Fogge which Time will certainly dissolve Nay and perchance Discover over and above that some of Those Blazes which the Common People take for Stars of the first Magnitude are in Effect but Comets Portents of That Mischief which they seldome live to see Accomplish'd But enough of These ungratefull and Seditious Machinatours against Their Prince and their Preserver And so from These Indignities against the Son wee 'll passe to Those Fatalities that made way to the Ruine of the most Pious Patient Mercifull and yet Murther'd Father CAP. XII What it was Principally that Ruin'd King CHARLES the MARTYR TO see an Imperial Prince Unking'd Arraign'd and Beheaded with all Formalities of Law and Iustice by his own Subjects and Those too People of sworn Faith and Holinesse Can any man forbear Demanding For what Prodigious Reasons so horrible an Action was Committed Was it for Religion No Hee Dy'd a Martyr for that Cause which to maintein They Sware they Fought Was it for Tyranny of Government Neither for ere the Warr began he had granted more in Favour of the Subject then all his Ancestours put them together Was it for Cruelty of Nature No nor That I can scarce call to Mind where ever he deny'd his Grace to any man that besought him for it unlesse where Mercy had been a sinne and where his Power was stinted by his Conscience Was it for want of skill to Rule or Courage to Protect his People For That his very Murtherers acknowledg'd him a Prince of singular Abilities and Valour And touching his Morals or Devotions Malice it self could never deny That King to be a Person of a most Regular Piety and restrein'd Appetite How came it then that a Prince Authorized by his Birth Sacred by his Office Guarded by his Laws Religious in his Practice Gracious in his Nature Temperate in his Likings and lastly Accomplish'd in his Person should come to Fall in the Heart of his Dominions before the Gates of his own Palace and by the Hands of his own People But Christ himself was Crucify'd Ambition drives Furiously and in the way to a Crown Those Christian Rubbs of Conscience or Humanity are not so much as Bulrushes In fine That Blessed Martyr's Actions were so Innocent they were fain to Quarrell with his Thoughts and for want of Faults to ruine him by abusing his Virtues This we shall manifest to have been Their Practice But wee 'll first take a short View of their Approches Never since Calvin bound the Head of the Holy Discipline was ever any Monarch Quiet that admitted it 'T is a Specifique Poyson to Monarchy And the Ground it gets is not so much by working upon the Iudgment as upon the Good Nature of Princes It Looks so Sillily and Beggs so Heartily 't is a hard matter to resist so great an earnestnesse accompanyed with so little shew of Danger If They are Repuls'd Good God! they cry That any man should go about to Damne so many Thousand Souls for such a Trifle when 't is come to That once 't is gone too far for such an Exclamation is enough to raise a Tumult King Iames his Answer to Knewstubb upon the Conference at Hampton-Court was as it should be and no Prince ever had a Truer measure of Sir Iohns Foot then himself Knewstubb desir'd to know how far an Ordinance of the Church was binding without offence to Christian Liberty The King turns quick upon him Le Roy s' avisera says he Wee 'll no more of Those Questions How far you are bound to Obey what the â—hurch has once Ordeyn'd Had he dealt otherwise his Majesty had given the Presbyterian the first Hold. At the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth brake forth Those Broyles in Scotland wherein the Lords of the Congregation so was the Faction distinguish'd Deprived the Queen-Regent by the Approbation and Advise of Willock and Knox to whom the Case was Referâ—'d The French assisted the Queen Dâ—wager and the Lords of the Revolt were for some Reasons of State assisted by Queen
A MEMENTO DIRECTED To all Those that Truly Reverence the Memory of KING CHARLES the MARTYR And as Passionately wish the Honour Safety and Happinesse of his Royall Successour Our most Gratious Sovereign Charles the II. THE FIRST PART By ROGER L'ESTRANGE Sic Canibus Catulos similes Virg. LONDON Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in Ivy-lane Aprill the 11. 1662. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE The EARL of CLARENDEN Lord High CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND My LORD HE that Owes more then he is Worth and Payes as far as he is Able is an Honest Man and That 's My Case more wayes then One. Nor is it possible for Mee to Think of my Debts and not of your Lordships Bounties at the same time Under whose Roofe I have formerly receiv'd so many many Benefits In the Establishment of That Felicity I reckon'd my self as sure as in the Possession of it I did my Lord and I must do so still or do a harder and a worse Thing in Thinking Otherwise For I am the same I was and to suppose your Lordships good opinion either Begun or Ended without Reason were to subject your Wisdome or Stability to a Question Since so it is My Lord that I cannot suspect your Kindnesse without an injury to your Honour nor let your Obligations sleep without some Testimony of my Thankfulnesse Vouchsafe to know my Lord that after more then Twenty Years spent in serving the Royall Interest Near Six of them in Gaoles and almost Four under a Sentence of Death in Newgate Fortune has been so kind as to leave me yet a Bottle of Inke and a Heap of Paper out of which pittiful Remain I make your Lordship a Present of a Book This Book I humbly offer not to your Reading or Thought but barely to your Countenance Let it my Lord but wear the Credit of Your Patronage Which I the rather wish because of a Late Pamphlet that I find Dedicated to your Lordship by a Mournevall of Presbyterians wherein my Name is not well us'd and truly if I am not Mistaken his Majesties Justice and Authority much worse about the Imprisonment of Mr. Crofton I must Proceed now to acquaint your Lordship that beside the Honour of your Protection I have great need of your Interest and Favour which yet I dare not Beg for fear of Offending your Readinesse to do me all reasonable Justice without it In Truth it is not for a man either of my Nature or Condition to Thrive by Begging for he that is both Poor and Honest carries a Double Clogg Especially in This Age my Lord when Heaven and Hell apart 't is a greater Scandal and Misfortune to be Indigent then Treacherous But there are my Lord that do not stick to say I 'm Both and I forgive with all my Soul the Worst that ever was said of Mee with good Intention to the King It is not long since I troubled your Lordship with a Paper upon This Subject to which with Leave I shall add a word or two Some will needs have it that I do not sufficiently Deny the Six hundred Pound My Lord I do so far deny it that I wish That Peny or Penyes-worth which to the best of my Knowledge I ever receiv'd from any Creature of the Rebels Party or by any Order from Them or any of Them may rise against Me at the Day of Judgment There is a further Rumour as if Captain Whitlock should have sent me word that he would justifie it whereas I never heard a Syllable from him to That Purpose nor can the World shew the least Colour for the Truth of That Report Let me be Pardon'd my Lord if I conoeive This Addresse not altogether Impertinent for if it did belong to you to Condemne me while you but Thought me Guilty your Lordship is certainly Oblig'd in Honour to Acquit me when you Know me Innocent In This Particular my Lord I think you are Bound to do me Right but in what Follows I totally Depend upon your Favour There is a Pitifull creature One Bagshaw a Chaplain to the Earl of Anglesie and the Authour of the Animadversions upon the Bishop of Worsters Letter This Fellow when his hand was In against the Bishop lends Mee a Lash too for my Practices with Cromwell Your Lordship would do me a Peculiar Honour to Procure that he might be called before the Counsell to make good his Charge where if I prove not Him That Villein which he Pretends I am let Mee suffer for it My LORD I am Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant Roger L'estrange April 11. 1662. The Preface THE Subject I have here undertaken leads mee into several unlucky Characters which if they were like no-body would be good for Nothing as holding no Proportion with Nature and Truth If any man Imagine that he sees himself Here let him keep his own Counsel and Consider that a Coat may be fit for him that was never made for him His Answer was not amisse that being Compleyn'd of to the Late Eminent Earl of Strafford for having written a Libel My Lord sayes he The Case is but This I throw down a Fools Cap This Gentleman takes it up and has a Phansie that it fits Him In short Let not an Ill man find fault with a Vitious Character For 't is much worse to Practice Wickednesse than to Peint it The scope of This First Part which I here expose is by Laying open the Workings and Series of the Last Rebellion to disappoint the Purposes of another The Second Part I reserve for more Particular Duties both Christian and Political which shall follow sooner or Later according to the Enterteynment which the World affords to This. The Author's Faults are enow without the Printers Of Each sort there are Many and I leave it to the Judicious Reader to Distinguish them A MEMENTO PART I. CAP. I. The Matter and Causes of Seditions THE Matter of Seditions according to Sir Francis Bacon whose words and Authority I shall often make use of in this little Treatise is of two kinds Much Poverty and much Discontentment The Causes and Motives of Seditions he reckons to be These Innovation in Religion Taxes Alteration of Lawes and Customs Breaking of Privileges General Oppression Advancement of unworthy Persons Strangers Dearths Disbanded Souldiers Factions grown desperate And whatsoever in offending People joyneth and knitteth them in a common Cause These Inconveniences either seasonably discover'd colourably pretended or secretly promoted are sufficient to the foundation of a Civil Warr. In which Negative and dividing Politiques none better understood themselves than the Contrivers of our late Troubles not only improving and fomenting Discontentments where they found them and creating violent Iealousies where there was but any place to imagine them but They Themselves were the greatest gainers even by those Grievances against which they complained Reaping a double Benefit first from the Occasion of the Difference and then from the Issue of it When a seditious bumor is
the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and with two miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28. 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification Concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and Encroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640. they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a cessation is agreed upon referring the decision of all differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolences against the Government committed and Authorised under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct attempt upon the Soveraignty but by request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ian they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't but so that they Protest if his Majesty persist to deny it they are Resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolv'd upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642. the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King entrance which was Iustified by an Ensuing Vote and his Majesties Proclayming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Privilege In May the pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trayned Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the Country for a Regiment of the Trayned Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsell intended to make a Warr against his Parliament and that whosoever should assist him were Traytors They proceed then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seize his Majesties Revenue and declare that whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be Questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Sovereign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voyce The levying of Warr against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not a levying of Warr against the King but a levying Warr against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying Warr against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Powers by an Absurd Illegal and Impious severing of the Kings Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in Execution And to subject the sacred Authority of a Lawfull Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headlesse Parliament and That 's the Business of the 19. Propositions demanding That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be menaged by consent and Apprebation of Parliament all the great affairs of State Privy Councell Ambassadours and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by Their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further that his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Lawes against them strictly in Execution and finally that the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councell and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon These terms they insisted and Rais'd a Warr to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power Themselves which was to suit their Liberty of Acting to That of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat Their Design was to Usurp the Government is Manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they us'd to compass it The Grand Projectors knew very well that the strength of their Cause depended upon the favour of the Ignorant and Licencius Multitude which made them court all people of That Mixture to their Party for men of Brain and Conscience would never have agreed to a Conspiracy against so clear a Light so just an Interest and Those they found their fast Friends whom neither the Horrour of Sin nor the brightest evidence of Reason was able to work upon To fit and dispose Both Humours to their purpose the first scruple they Started was Religion which taken as they used it in the external form and jâ—ngle of it is beyond doubt the best Cloke for a Knave and the best Rattle for a Fool in Nature Under This Countenance the Murther of the King pass'd for a Sacrifice of Expiation and those Brute-Animals that scarce knew the Bible from the Alcoran were made the Arbitratours of the Difference The fear of Popery was the Leading Iealousie which Fear was much promoted by Pamphlets Lectures and Conventicles Still coupling Popery and Prelacy Ceremonies and the Abominations of the Whore by these resemblances of the Church of England to That of Rome tacitly instilling and bespeaking the same Disaffection to the one which the people had to the other Their Zeal was first employ'd upon the Names of Priests and Altar the Service-book Church-habits and Ceremonies From Thence
comes into my mind of Mark 15. 18. Haile King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spat upon him and bowed the Head and did him Reverence This Impious Libell was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the Kings Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettours of these and other the like Indignities and Proclamation was accordingly made for the Apprehending of them which very Proclamation was Declared to be a Paper False Scandalous and Illegal After This Language what had they more to do but by Armed Violence to invade the Sovereignty and to emprove a loose and Popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastened too even beside the Termes of Ordinary Prudence to emplunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulfe into which their Sin and Folly was about to lead them To keep their Zeal and Fury waking the Faction had a singular Faculty at Inventing of Plots Counterfeiting Letters Intercepting Messages over-hearing Conspiracies which Artificial Delusions especially asserted by the pretended Authority of a Parliament and a Pulpit could not but work strong Effects of Scruple and Iealousie upon a prejudging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd That Power which afterward they Employ'd in Opposition to those very Ends for which they sware they Rays'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'll slipp the Warr and see in the next place what Government they Gave us in Exchange for That they had Subverted CAP. V. A short View of the Breaches and Confusions betwixt the Two Factions from 1648. to 1654. IT cannot be expected that a Power acquir'd by Bloud and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only United against Iustice and at Perpetual Variance with it self I say it cannot be expected that such a Power as This should be Immortal Yet is it not enough barely to argue the Fatality of Wickedness from the Certainty of Divine Vengeance and There to stopp Usurpers are not Rays'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follyes they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuâ—ty of their own Counsels down they Tumble Wherefore let us Enquire into the Springs and Reasons of their Fortunes and Falls as well as Gaze upon the Issues of them A timely search into the Grounds of one Rebellion may prevent another How the Religious Opposers of the late King advanced themselves against his Sacred Authority we have already shew'd be it our business here to Observe their workings one upon the other To begin with Them that began with Us The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterward to Establish Themselves by using Prerogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect on Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation then to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretense or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supreme Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more then they could overcome I mean great Difficulties in point of Interest and Conduct for those of Honour and Conscience they had subdu'd long since They strove however till opprest by a General Hatred and the Rebouud of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independents Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticisme of a Free-State The better half of which time being successfully Employ'd in the subjecting of Scotland and Ireland to their Power and Model and to complete their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Usurpations over his Royal Dominions their next work was to make themselves Considerable Abroad and 't was the Fortune of the Dutch to feel the First proof of That Resolution Betwivt these Rivall States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloudy the Last especially a Tearing one Upon the whole the Dutch Lost more but the English got little beside the Honour of the Victory in which particular the Kingdom pay'd dear for the Reputation of the Common-wealth This Success rays'd the Pride and Vanity of the English so that at next Bout nothing less would serve them than an Absolute Conquest But while they are Providing for it and in the Huff of all their Glory behold the Dissolution of the Long-Parliament which whether it Began or Ended more to the Satisfaction of the People is a Point not yet decided Dissolved however it is and Rebuk'd for Corruptions and Delayes by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsell of State compos'd of Persons entirely disaffected to the Common-wealth This Little Ridiculous Convention thought to have done mighty Matters but the Plot Vented and Vanish'd Some of their Memorable Fopperies are These The Famous Act concerning Mariages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessement of 120000 l. per Mensem they Voted down the Chancery and Tythes they Voted also a total Alteration of the Laws All of a mind they were not and for Distinction sake the company was divided into the Honest Party and the Godly Party Of the Former were Cromwell's Creatures and of the Other Barebones or rather Harrisons the Person they had design'd for General if they could perswade Cromwell to quit his Security for some additional Title of Dignity These Zealous Patriots Commonly brought their Bibles into the House with them and as I am Enform'd diverse of them were seeking the Lord with Vavasor Powell when This following trick was put upon them An Hour or two sooner in the morning then usuall Decemb. 12. he that they call'd their Speaker took the Chayre and it was presently Mov'd and Carry'd for several Reasons to re-assign their Power to him from whom they had it which was immediately persu'd and so they made Cromwell a Prince for making Them a Parliament This gratious Resignation produc'd that blessed Instrument of Government by which the Hypocrite was made Protector and now forsooth the style is chang'd from The Keepers of the Liberry of England by Authority of Parliament into Oliver Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. who was Installed and Sworn Decemb. 16. 1653. To his Assistance was Appointed a Counsell of 21. the Quorum 13. By whom immediately upon the Death of the Present Protector should be chosen one to succeed him alwayes excepted the Right Line from the choice 'T is suppos'd that Lambert had an eye upon himself in the reach of That Article and a Particular influence upon the drawing of it being at
at London Feb. 3. and upon the 7. comes out the 100000 l. Tax which produced a Common-Counsell the day following to advise upon it where it was Resolv'd To adhere to a former Vote of the Court in the Negative This Refusall puzzled the Counsell of State who without being Masters of the City and of Mony were able to do little so that they forthwith Order'd the Reducing of the City by Emprisoning half a Score of their Citizens and upon another Denyall to take away their Posts and Chains and destroy their Gates and Portcullisses which was accordingly Executed but with such Regret that thereupon they lodg'd the Government of the Army in Five Commissioners the General being One with Evident Design to wipe him of his Employment But Their Ingratitude wrought little with him whose Actions were only steer'd by the Compass of Loyalty and Prudence So that having humour'd the People at Westminster till they had made themselves sufficiently Odious and abundantly try'd the Affections of the City to his Design in hand Upon the 11 of Feb. he gave the House to understand the Necessity of their timely Dissolution in order to the right of Successive Parliaments the very hopes of which Release gave the People a Joy to the Degree of Madness Upon the 21. were re-admitted the Secluded Members of 1648. by whom were Writs Issued out for a Representative to meet upon the 25. of April 1660. and March 16. 1659. they formally Dissolve themselves Committing the Government in that Interval to a Counsell of State Upon the day Appointed the Convention meets but not altogether so Leaven'd as by the Qualifications was intended Excluding Father and Son of such as had serv'd the King from the Election In fine the Major Part of that Assembly according to their Duty gave the King his own again without Those shackles and conditions which the Qualifyers would have impos'd upon his Majesty Upon whose Legal and Imperial freedom depends the safety and well-being of his People CAP. VIII The Usurper Oliver was principally distress'd by the Warr with Spain and his Standing Army WE have now brought Rebellion from the Cradle to the Grave we have seen it Triumphant and now we see it in the Dust subjected at the Feet of our Most Gratious Sovereign to accompt for the Bloud of his Royal Father Be it our Business next to enquire What hinder'd Oliver from Establishing himself Upon what Reason of State Cause Errour or Necessity That prosperous Usurper fayl'd But some will not allow he fail'd as if the sole Fatality of the Cause was his Decease and the Design only miscarryed through the ill menage of a Weak Successour For granted by good order it might have been Caudled up and kept above ground a little longer but still it seems to Me that before Oliver Dy'd the Cause was Bed-rid and Hectique past Recovery Opinion is Free Any Man 's as Mine and Mine as Any Mans so that submitting my Reasons to the Wise and Recommending my Weakness to the Charitable I Proceed Cromwell did wisely to take his Rise to the Sovereignty upon the Necks of those Usurpers whom he cast out in 1653. For in the same Action he Oblig'd the People Master'd his Enemies and Fill'd his Pockets Yet were not Those Means that advanc'd the Tyrant sufficient to Establish him One Obstacle was the Inconsistence of his Doctrine with his Design for the same Arguments that Rays'd him Ruin'd him The People were instructed to Destroy Kings not to set them up and beside he that had so many Sharers in the Hazzards of the Rebellion could not fail of some Competitors for the Benefit of it Further he had no considerable Party sure to his Interest and all but his Meer Creatures and Allies were utter Enemies to it The City Hated him for their Losse of Trade the Countrey for their Taxes the Royallists for his Rebellion and Cruelty the Presbyterians for his Breach of Covenant That is for not destroying the King after Their Way The Levellers for his Ambition and in fine all the hope he had was to New-Modell an Army to his purpose that fayl'd him too at last for want of Mony and Credit to maintein it Which Want was chiefly hasten'd and procur'd by his precipitate Breach with Spain together with the Necessity of keeping up a Standing Army The Former of These was doubtless his Mistake or rather a Temerity scarce advised upon For having brought the Hollander to his Knees the only Stranger he had then to fear and after That shak'd hands with him his next Course should have been by Thrift and Popularity to Ingratiate himself at Home and not by a Rambling Needlesse and Expensive Warr to squander away the life-bloud of the Nation and in That Indigent Extremity of the State to make Ducks and Drakes with the Publique Treasure Nor was the Consequence lesse Fatall to him than was the Enterprize to a common Eye Imprudent the hopes of carrying his Design in no wise Countervailing the risque he ran of losing all he had Got in case he missed it I might Instance in a Thousand wayes of profusion and Oppression Common to all Usurpers both practised by Him and exposing him to great Necessities but I shall rather bestow the rest I have to say upon the Fatality of that Tyrant's Condition Which forc'd him to make use of for his Safety the greatest of all Dangers to wit A Standing Army For Order sake Wee 'll first Consider Upon what Pretense and to what end 't was Rays'd In the Next Place Wee 'll see what it produc'd and weigh the Benefits with the Inconveniences Lastly Wee 'll look into the probable Effects and Influence of it as related to the English Temper Custome and Government To the first what I here call a Standing Army was but the Emprovements of a Slight Temporary force rays'd in pretense at first as an Expedient against Plots being indeed it self the Greatest but Encreas'd Continued and Carried on by Policy and Power This Project came from the Cabale in 1641. Couch'd under the Notion of A Guard for the House of Commons Who conceiv'd that they could not with the Safety of their Persons upon which the Safety and Peace of the whole Kingdom did then depend sit any longer Unarmed and Unguarded so great were their Apprehensions and just Fears of mischievous Designs to ruine and destroy them This was the Popular Colour for that Guard Plots and the Safety of the Publique Where the Plot was in Truth and where the Reall Danger may be gather'd from the Practises of Those Armies whereof The Guard aforesaid was but the Rise and Foundation And That 's the point we handle next The setting of This little Force a-foot was a fair Step toward the Militia One Guard begetting Another and the same Reason standing good for the Augmenting and Upholding of Those Troupes which was employ'd for the first Raysing of
as Their Custome of Friborghes or Frank-Pledges Enquesâ—s Oathes and â—â—nalties Tenures by Knâ—ghts-Service Commissions of Array c. which being of approv'd Benefit and Equality were much more suitable to the Gâ—nius and Interest of the People than a Standing Aâ—my which to allow had been no other then to deliver up the Strength of the Nation into the hands of a Faction Nor was it lesse against the Government than against the Humour of the Nation Put a Parliament over the Nation and an Army over the Parliament Who Governs But all Oliver's Geese were Swans and his Souldiers Saints Did they not Take what they would Give what they would Raise and Pluck-down at Pleasure Nay Effectually did ever any Standing-Army Other if they had nothing Else to do Had they not already got the Trick of Calling the People together to Get Mony of them and then sending them away like Buzzards when they had gotten it of Packing and Qualifying Engrossing of Powers and Offices Cantonizing the Nation Was it to be expected they should restore the Right Line again when they had set up the Wrong The King when they had erected a General The Law when they had Master'd it by the Sword They did not Tug so hard for that they meant to part with Easily What they got by Rebellion was to be mainteyn'd by Tyranny and Necessity was sure at Last to do the work of Conscience I Think more need not be said to Oliver's Standing-Army His Mony could not last alwayes and when he wanted That once he was certain to find his Army as Dangerous an Enemy as it had been a Faithfull Friend to him in his Prosperity Nay truly ' bate his Usurpation his want of Faith and Honour But rather then Prophane the Sacred Character of God's Vicegerent by joyning Majesty and Cromwell in the same Supposition let us Imagine rather a Wise and Lawfull Prince in the place of that Usurper and yet it may be a Question How far a Standing Army would have Consisted with the Interest even of a Rightfull Monarch First As the Nation was Poor and in no Condition for the Charge of it Next as it was Impoverished by an Army and therefore ill-persuaded of That Expedient Thirdly the Prince himself must have been Poor in Olivers Place and what should a Poor Prince have done with a Standing Army over a Poor and Discontented People The Interest of This world is Mony Subjects Rebell Armies Divide and Kingdoms fall to nothing for want of it That which Fools call Fortune being to men of clearer sight only the Favourable Influence of Treasure 'T is That which Carries Townes Causes and Armies puts Knaves in Honest mens places Corrupts Counsels and Supplants Governments the People wear their hearts at their purse-strings and a General Oppression is ever accompanied with a General desire to Remove it I speak of what they do not what they ought to do for all men are not of a Constitution to hang and Sterve for Conscience In fine where the State is Necessitous and a Faction Wealthy That Prince as is already hinted that erects a Standing Force in that condition does but provide an Army for his Enemies Not to insist upon the hazzards arising either from the People if the Principal Officers have too little Power or from the Officers Themselves if they have too much by which not only the Publique Peace but the Monarchy it self is Endanger'd the Kingâ— Crown depending upon the Revolt of a Province What can be more perillous then This Conjuncture where there is so great a Temptation on the one hand and so great a Provocation on the Other where the Multitude wait only for a Head and the Ambitious for a Party But why do I discourse the Mischiefs of a Standing Army They are too many great and Obvious to admit a Question What are the Benefits of it Rather Is it either safe to any Purpose or Useful to the common and pretended end of it even under a Lawful and Hereditary Monarch It 's true a Prince may deal with his Dominions as the Gentleman did with his Estate that turn'd an Inheritance into an Annuity because he would rather have it Lâ—â—ge then Long and That 's the Fairest of a Forc'd Government Suppose he save himself for his own time what will become then of his Successour But that wee 'll waive too and Consider what 's the Fruit of it to himself Is he the Richer for 't Alas the Contrary the Nation bears a Double Burthen and the Army Sucks the better half of the Advantage Is he the Safer Neither for a Mutiny in his Army is both more likely and more dangerous then a Tumult among his People In fine A Standing Army may promote a Faction but 't is the Law preserves the Publique and consequently the King That Monarch that Secures himself from Private Practices by a Choice Full and Honourable Guard well Paid and Disciplin'd about his Royall Person as to the Rest shall find the Strict and timely Execution of Good Lawes the best Publique Security against Sedition 'T is a Cheap Remedy and therefore Acceptable to the Generality A Legall one so that the Delinquents Themselves cannot Complein of it and Lastly 't is a Sure one which if it be what can be more advisable for any Prince and People In Truth so Sure it is that I 'm to seek ' bate only Matter of Claim where ever any Setled Government was Embroyl'd but either by the Interest of a Standing Force or the Remisseness of Authority in the Execution of Establish'd Lawes The Necessity of a Royall Guard is Evident the Number must be suited to the differing Exigences of Times and Places but with This General Regard That it be not only sufficient to the Safety of a Prince but Honorary likewise and Accommodate to his Dignity and Demonstrative rather of his Power then of his Danger But be the Body Great or Small Nay wee 'll suppose it equal to a Standing Army but not Distributed as That is into County-Troops and Provincial Governments Call it a Guard still for the very Name of the Other sounds like a Grievance The One supposing only the Peoples Care of their Sovereign the Other intimating the Sovereigns Iealousie of his People Let me not be understood as in allowance of This Over-proportion for such a Guard is but an Army in Disguise There may be Temporary Occasions indeed for Temporary and Extraordinary Levies but the word Temporary is commonly attended with such a Train of Reasons for Perpetuity that if the Occasion be not very Manifest the World is apt to doubt of the Necessity Not that the Generality have any Right to judge of or Debate the Grounds of a Change but I suppose that Their Opinions and After-feelings will not be deny'd to have some Influence upon the Event of it To Conclude That Prince is Great Safe and Happy that Commands by his Armes Abroad and
but He to Ease the People in Publique of the Grievances which himself had Procured in Private and in fine no man so fit to be made a Iudge in Israel To All This he must be Daring in his Person Close in his Purpose Firm to his Dependencies and rather stooping to the Ordinary People then mixing with them hee 'll do no good on 't else To Proceed let him be Watch'd how he Employes his Power and Favour whether with Machiavel more to the Advantage of his Master Or to his own particular Benefit and Then whether according to the Lord St. Albans he applies himself more to his Master's Business or to his Nature and rather to Advise him then to feed his Humour If he be found to study his Masters Passions more then his Honour and to Preferr his Private Interest to his Duty 't is an Ill sign And 't is no good one if the Favourite grows Rich and the Prince Poor especially if the Former be the Cause of the Latter but it is much a worse if he Presume to graspe Authority as well as Treasure It looks as if the Suppos'd Equality of Friendship had Drown'd the Order of Subjection Take Notice next of the Proportion betwixt the means he uses and his suspected ends Does he Engross the Disposition of all Charges and Preferments See in what hands he Places Them Does he endeavour to Obstruct all Grants of Grace and Benefit that passe not through his own fingers That 's Dangerous for says Sir Francis Bacon When the Authority of Princes is made but an Accessary to a Cause and that there be other Bands that Tie faster then the Band of Sovereignty Kings begin to be put almost out of Possession Marque then again what Kind of Persons he Promotes and for what likely Reasons whether for Mony or Merit Honesty or Faction Observe likewise the Temper and Quality of his Complicates and Creatures and whether his Favours be Bounties or Purchases If the Former Judge of his Design by his Choyce If the Latter 't is but a Mony-Businesse which Avarice meeting with an overweening vanity of mind is many times mistaken for Ambition In fine what Ambition does at hand Corruption does at Length nor is the Power of the One more Dangerous then the Consequence of the Other Subsection II. The Combination of Divers Counsellours PRoceed we now from the Greatness of One Counsellour to the Combination of Divers which to vary the Phrase is no other then a form'd Confederacy in the Counsel against the Monarch Wherein we shall Briefly lay down first the Advantages of the Faction the Methode next and lastly the marques of it Their Advantages are great and many in Regard both of their Privileges exempting them from Question of their Power to Offend their Enemies and Protect their Friends and in Consideration of their Opportunities to look into Both hands and play their Cards accordingly In their Methode of proceeding This is their Master-piece not only to do all the hurt they can under a colour of Good but to Engage Persons of more Honesty then Understanding in Offices seemingly Serviceable but Effectually Pernicious to the Publique by which Artifice those that are Friends to the Government do unwarily serve the Crafty Enemies of it secretly undermining the Honour of the Prince under Pretext of advancing his Profit Lessening his Power at Home under the Disguise of making him more formidable Abroad and where they cannot persuade an Interest if it be Considerable they will not stick to Purchase it As to the Rest the Methode is rather tacitly to Invite and Countenance a Sedition then openly to Head it and to Engage rather for it then with it till the hazzard of the first onset be over In Truth the first Essay of a Tumult is but a Tryall how the Ice will bear and the Popular Faction in the Counsell is more concern'd in case of a Disaster how to bring their Friends off then to Venture the leading them On for Fear of One. Whence it comes to passe that by the Obligation of Encouraging and Preserving their Party they are Cast upon a Scurvy Necessity of Discovering Themselves Their Marques are many for They are known by their Haunts by their Cabales by their Debates by their Domestiques by their Favorites and by their maner of Conversation and Behaviour If there be any Schismatical Teacher that 's Craftier and Slyer then the Rest you may be sure of my Lord's Coach at His Preachment It gives a Reputation to the Conventicle besides the Gracious Looks at Parting that passe betwixt his Honour and the Brethren which Enterchange is but a secret way of Sealing and Delivering a Conspiracy Look into their Cabales and ye shall find them all of a Tribe and Leaven Close Sedulous and United Their Dayly Meetings relishing of a Design as being Compos'd rather for Counsel then Enterteinment In their Debates you 'll know them by their Pleas Shiftings Delayes Extenuations Distinctions their Frequent and Industrious Obstructions of Dispatch in favour of the Faction By their Zealous Intercessions for the Enemies of the Prince and their Coldnesse for his Friends by their watchfulnesse to Seize all Opportunities of helping the Guilty and of Surprizing the Innocent by their Injecting of Snares and Scruples to Amuse and Distract those that are for the Government in Order to the Benefit of such as are against it wherein it is worth a Note that they all Vote the same way and without Question to the same Purpose for they shall sooner destroy a Loyal Subject upon a Calumny then punish a Traytour Convict and prosecute one man for Writing or Saying that it is possible for a Prince to have a Judas in his Counsel when another shall scape unquestion'd or perhaps be justify'd that calls his Sovereign a Tyrant and defends the Murther of Kings They may be guess'd at likewise in some measure by their Domestiques Especially by those of near Relation to Trust Privacy and Businesse as Chaplains Secretaries c. Nor is it enough to have it like Master like man unless it be like Lady like woman too for the pure strein must run quite Thorough for fear of Tales out of Schole and Discovering the Secrets of the Family But This Rule is not Universal From their Favorites much may be gather'd first from their Principles and Abilities And Then from the Frequency Privacy and Particularity of their Enterteining them The True Composition of a Confident fit for such a Statesman as we here speak of is This. He must be One that knows the Right and Opposes it for there is then lesse Danger of his Conversion and Consequently of Discovering his Patron Let him be likewise a man of Sobriety in his outward appearances of Reputation with his Party and well-grounded in the Niceties of the Controversie he must be also a Master of his Passions Peremptory in his mistakes and
Body meet dayly conferring and dispersing their Compleints and Clamours they Break at last and Then they Tumult How many Thousand Persons are there in England that Live from Hand to Mouth only upon the Trades of Cloth and Ribands and 't is the same in Utopia To Conclude Pay strikes deep and takes off in great measure That Odium and Envy which usually attends the Splendor Pomp and Luxury of Courts A word now to the Camp Sect. IV. The CAMP THe Two Grand Interests of the Souldiery are Pay and Honour that is such Honour as belongs to them as Sword-men As for Instance 't is their Profession not to put up Affronts They do not love to have their Under-Officers rais'd over their heads New-Modelling or Disbanding is a Thing they do not like and a Publique disgrace is never to be forgiven By Ill Order in These Two Particulars are commonly occasion'd Mutinies and Revolts which become then most perillous when a disobliged General has a Purse to Engage a Discontented Army We speak here of an Army Employ'd by a Prince as a Security against his own Subjects which is quite another Case then against a Foreign Enemy for the same Popular and Ambitious Humour that in a Commander Abroad is most Proper and Necessary is on the Contrary as Dangerous at home The safety of the State depending only upon the Insuperable Virtue and Fidelity of such a Person Some Armies we have known to Prove Troublesome and to Divide upon Pretenses of Religion but a Holy War is a Contradiction and a Story only fit to passe upon Women and Children Upon the whole it seems that an Army within it self and without any Separate Interest may be troublesome upon These Three Accompts Either Want of Pay which causes a General Mutiny or Disgrace which more Peculiarly reflecting upon such or such Officers Troupes or Parties provokes Animosities Factions and Revolts or Ambition which more directly attempts upon the Sovereignty It may be also Hazzardous by reason of some Errour in the Constitution of it That is if it be composed of Persons Ill-affected to the Government it cannot rationally be expected that it should labour to Preserve what it wishes to Destroy But we are treating of Distempers acquir'd and rather proceeding from the ill menage of an Army then from the first Mis-choyce or founded in the Iudgment of it Concerning a Standing-Army enough is said in the foregoing Chapter a word wee 'll add It is in This Regard an Affair of a Peevish Quality that either a General has too little Power to do his Master's businesse or enough to do his own As it is not safe for a Monarch at any time to entrust the Chief Officer of an Army with so much Power for fear of a Sedition as may enable him to move a Rebellion so is it a work of great Skill and Difficulty so dexterously to Resume or Ballance that over-grown Power as to bring in under Command without discovering such a Jealousie as may Provoke him to abuse it Let This suffice as to the Disorders of an Army within it self Another Hazzard is lest it be Corrupted into a Dependence upon some other Interest into which Defection it may be partly Driven by the Neglect or Unkindnesse of the Prince and partly Drawn by the Allurements of Profit and Reward Having spoken of the Mischief a Seditious Army may Doe very Briefly let us behold what mischiefes a Vitious and undisciplin'd Army may Cause There never fails to be an Opposition betwixt the Civill and the Military Power and in like maner betwixt the People and the Souldiery Whom nothing else can Reconcile but downright Force and Necessity So that the fairest State of a Nation over-aw'd by an Army of their own Countrymen is an extorted Patience accompany'd with a Readinesse to embrace any opportunity of working their Deliverance If at the best the bare appearance of a Force be so Generally distastful what Havock will not the Licentious abuse of it Cause in a Kingdom Especially in Populous Towns where One Affront Exasperates a Million and 't is not two hours work to destroy an Army A. Royall Guard is of another Quality and such it ought to before Choice and Number as both suitable to the Charge they undertake for the Safety of That Sacred Person and sufficient to the Execution of it Sect. V. The CITY BY the City we intend the Metropolis of a Kingdom which in many Respects challenges a Place and Consideration in This Chapter of Seditions Particularly in Regard of Inclination and Power There is not Generally speaking so fair an Intelligence betwixt the Court and City as for the Common Good of Both were to be wish'd and This proceeds Chiefly from a Pride of Bloud on the One side and of Wealth on the Other breeding a mutual Envy between them This Envy by degrees boyles up to an Animosity and Then Tales are Carryed to the Monarch of the insolence of the Citizens and Stories on the other side to the People of the Height and Excesses of the Court and Here 's the Embryo of a Sedition From Hence each Party enters into a Crosse Contrivement These how to tame the Boldness of the One and Those how to supplant the Greatnesse of the Other Both equally unmindful of their Inseparable Concerns the Citizen that he holds his Charter of the Bounty of his Prince and the Courtier that it is a flourishing Trade that makes a Flourishing Empire By These Heats is a City-Humour against the Court emprov'd into a Popular Distemper against the King and here 's the Inclination of a Disorder'd City As to their Power they have Men Money and Armes at an houre 's warning the very Readynesse of which Provision makes it worth double the Proportion Their Correspondencies are Commonly strong and Firme and their dependencies Numerous for the Pretense being Trade and Liberty books in all Places of the same Interest to the same Faction Beside That General device seeming Religion that stamps the Cause and Prints a GOD WITH US upon it In fine a Potent and a Peevish City is a shrew'd Enemy Now to the Maner of Actuting Those Seditious Inclinations and Emproving These Abilities to do Mischief Their first work is to Possesse the Vulgar with This Notion that in some Cases the Monarch is limited and the Subject free intending that the Prince is bounded by the Law and that the People are at Liberty where the Law is silent and so likewise in points of Conscience by which Argument the People Govern where there is no expresse Law and the King only where there is Taking it once for Granted that the Prince is Limited by the Law which Conscientiously he is for in observing the Law he does but keep his own word They presently Conclude that if the King transgresse the Rule of his Power he forfeits the Right of it and that for such a Violation he is accomptable
Fore-runner of Destruction and the Cause of it but the Loud and Crying Provoker of it Sect. VI. The COUNTRY THat Interest which contributes the Least to a Sedition and suffers the most by it is That of the Country which is properly comprised under Tillage and Pasture For I reckon all Populouâ— Places whether Towns or Villages that subsist by steady Traffique or Handy-crafts to be no other then Dependencies upon the Metropolis which is usually That in Proportion to the Kingdom which the Principal City of every Province is to the Other Parts of it This Interest seldome or never leads a Sedition upon it's own Accompt and when it does engage under Protection possibly of the next strong Hold or in favour of some neighbouring and Seditious Market-Town we do not find much hurt the Country-man does so long as the Sword and Plough are menaged by the same Hand If they forsake their Husbandry and turn Souldiours they fall under another Notion But in short let the Cause be what it will and the event of a Warr what it can They are sure to be undone by 't wherefore They may well be Friends to Peace to whom Warr is so great an Enemy Is there a Warr commenced Their Cariages must waite upon the Army Their Provisions feed them Their Persons attend them yes and Their Contribution Pay Them Their Teams must serve the State Their Wives and Girles the Souldiery They must be Mounting Dragoons when they should be Plowing Lugging their Beanes and Bacon to the Head-Quarter when they should be Sowing and at last scarce a Lame Iade to get in that little Harvest which the wild Troupes have left them Their Cattle are Driven away by one Party to day Their Corn taken by another to Morrow and when they are Throughly Plunder'd because they had something they must afterward expect to be Beaten too because they have Nothing Are not These faire Encouragements to make Husbandmen Seditious And yeâ— This Interest is severall wayes made use of to Promote Sedition Particularly by Three sorts of People The Discontented Nobleman the Rich Churle the Stiff and Contentious Free-born-Subject A Great Person may become Weary of the Court and withdraw into the Country out of divers unquiet Considerations Out of Ambition Pride or Revenge If his Trouble be Ambition his Course is to strengthen himself by Popularity and make a Party by spending his Revenue in a Bountifull and Open Hospitality upon the People which is the most Winning and the most spreading of all Obligations His Iades his Kites his Currs are free to all comers his Family is the whole World and his Companions are the Wits and the best of Good-fellowes If his Retirement be out of Pride as chusing rather to be the first Person in the Country then the Second or Third at Court His businesse is Popularity too though perhaps not Ayming so high for there are a sort of People insufferably haughty in their Looks Garbe and Language that have not Courage enough to be Ambitious This Man 's attended by the best Parasites that are to be had for Mony The Third Distemper is Revenge and That 's the worst of the Three In Ambition there 's somewhat that 's Noble Pride indeed is a Base and Abject Vice that is a Cowardly â— Pride Nay 't is at best but a Simple Sin But Revenge is Black and Diabolical Let it proceed whence it will Whether from some Affront Repulse Neglect Nay a Wry Look or a Mistaken Hint raises this Devill This is a Humour now of another Complexion Morose Unpleasant and rather watchful to Emprove an Opportunity of Mischief then Laborious to prepare it In the House of a Person haunted with â—his Fury you shall find Throngs of Silenc'd Ministers Discharged Officers Crop-eard Schismatiques Broken Citizens c. These are the Dangerous Malecontents whose Differing Inclinations of Temper are no hinderance to their Unity of Design where the Safety of the Prince and Government is the Question Next to This Discontented Nobleman Follows the Rich Churle which is a Creature that opposing Wealth to Dignity becomes the Head of the People for his Saucinesse of bearing up against the â—â—wer and Nobility of the Court It is scarce to be Imagined The Interest of This Chuff in a Popular Scuffle especially if he has gotten his Estate by a Rustical and â—lodding Industry for Then the Vulgar Reckon him as One of their own Rank and support him as the Gracâ— and Dignity of their Order We come now to the Stiff and Contentious Free-born Subject the Queintest and the Sharpest Youth of the Three Hee 'll tell ye to a hair upon what Point Prerogative becomes Tyranny How far a Subject may promote a Rebellion and yet be honest himself and Cleave the very Atome that divides the Rights of King and Subject Does any Minister of State or Iustice passe his Commission but the tenth part of a Scruple he cryes 'T is Arbitrary Illegal and an Encroachment upon the Birth-right of a Free-born Pâ—ople Let him be Question'd and the Matter Scann'd here 's his Dilemma Either by Carrying the Cause he Iustifies and Puffs up the People or by Suffering for it he Enrages them but still Obliging them both wayes the One way as their Champion and the Other as their Martyr Upon the Summe of the Matter That Government must be Carryed very even which These Instruments in Combination shall not be able to discompose Touching the Common Sort it is so little it their Power to Embroyle a Kingdome and so much lesse their Interest to do it that This Little is enough said concerning Them setting aside the Influence they have upon the Subject we are now entring upon Sect. VII The Body Representative THe Seaventh and Last Interest we are to Treat of is the Body Representative which is but One Grand Interest made up of all the Rest and as the Whole stands well or ill-affected to the Government so commonly does That Yet it falls out sometime that the Diligence and Stickling of a Faction gets the Start of a General Inclination It would aske an Age to reckon up all the Inconveniences which may arrive from the Evill Composition of This Assembly but so strict an Accompt will not be Necessary in regard that the Prince may at his Pleasure Remedy all by Dissolving them One great Defect is that in many places they have no Stated Rule how far their Cognisance extends No Measure of their Privileges through which Default more Time is spent and too too oft more Passion Stirr'd about the bounds of Their Authority then the main Businesse of their Meeting Beside the desperate Influence of This Mysterious Incertainty upon the Prince and Publique â—nder which Colour nothing so Seditious but it may both be Introduc'd and Protected Suppose a Motion in the Assembly directly against the Crown The Prince takes Notice of it and demands Reason for it Is 't not a fine Reply that
to deny Liberty of Speech to take Notice of any Thing in Debate to Question any One Member without the Leave of the Rest is a Breach of Privilege The Representative we here speak of answers the nearest of any to the House of Commons in England which Resemblance will much facilitate the task we are now upon having only to look back into the History of Charles the Martyr to find the Greatest Mischiefs and the Foulest Crimes which such a Convention in disorder may be capable of not medling with the Names of Persons but contenting our selves to discover the Arts Grounds and Occasions of Seditions without reproaching the Authors of them The Dangerous Mixture of a Representative we mâ—y divide into These Three Parties The Designers of Mischief tho Permitters of it and the Incompetent Iudges of it whose faylings are either of Commission Omission or Ignorance To begin with the First The Designers are either the Ambitious Heads of the Faction that ayme at Power as well as Profit in the Subversion of the Government or such Dependencyes as they can Engage by Menace Flattery faire Pretences Mony or Preferment These in their Severall Places promote the same Seditious Interest and every man knowes his Station They have their Contrivers their Speakers their Sticklers their Diviâ—ers their Moderators and their Blancks their I-and NO-men by which Method and Intelligence all Debates are Menaged to the Advantage of the Party and Occasion They know when to Move when to Presse when to Quit Divert Put off c. and they are as Skilfull in the Manner of Moulding their Businesse as they are Watchfull for the Season of Timing it Add to this Agreement and Confederacy of Designe their Zeal and Earnestness of Intention and what will not an Indefatigable Industry joyned to these Emprovements of Order and Counsell be able to accomplish The Lower and Weaker Faction is the firmer in Conjunction says Sir F. Bacon and it is often seen that a few that are Stiffe doe tire out a Greater Number that are more Moderate Yet to the Miracles that are wrought by Forecast and Assiduity there is still requisite a Matter predispos'd and fit to work upon and That 's the Dresse or Cleanly Couching of the Project 'T is not at first dash to attempt the Person of the King but the Multitude must by Degrees he made sensible of the Faults of his Ministers and Instructed to clamour against Oppression and Prophaneness Why should a Free-borne Subject be Press'd with Taxes and Obedience or a Christian Libertine be ty'd to worship by a Set-forme Is it not against the Fundamentals of a Mix'd Monarchy That ridiculous supposition for the Supream Magistrate to impose upon his Coordinate Subjects Or where is it Commanded in the Bible for people to Kneele at the Communion or to stand up at Gloria Patri These are sore Grievances indeed and now the Humour ' s ripe for Petitions to the Senate which being both Procur'd and Fram'd by a Cabale of the Senatours Themselves cannot fayle of being acceptable to the Faction who by this Artifice get the Credit of being taken for the proper Arbitratours of all Differences betwixt King and People through which mistake the Popular Representative becomes both Party and Iudge and it is Then no hard matter to Guess what will become of the Prerogative By making the most of all Compleints and the Worst of all Abuses they bespeak a Compassion for the One side and they provoke an Odium toward the Other which Amplification renders exceedingly Necessary the Remedy of a Thorough-Reformation The Subject is to be Free in One Point and the Monarch Limited in Another These Courts are to be Abolish'd Those Counsellours to be remov'd c. And in fine when the Prince has yielded till they want matter for Compleint Their Fears are not lesse Clamorous and Importune then were their Compleinings Of which undutiful and unlimited Distemper This is the certain Issue from one desire they proceed to another till the Prince to secure Their Jealousy has parted with all possibility of Preserving Himselfe This is their Course where they find the Government allready in Disorder but how to Introduce That Disorder is quite another point of Cunning. They are here onely to procure Those Grievances for which they are afterward to provide Remedies and to cast the State into a Disease that with better Pretense they may give it Physick Siding with the Prerogative against the People in the first place and with the People against the Prerogative in the next In a word Their Services are snares they give a little that they may take all and by a Plausible Oppression provoke a Barbarous Rebellion Another sort of ill Ministers in a Representative are the Permitters of these Abuses Such as being Chosen and Entrusted for the Publique Weale Abandon their Stations and Deliver up their Country Betwixt whom and the Conspiratours Themselves there is but This Difference The One Quits the Breach and the Other Enters These Throw down their Armes and Those Take the Town what the One Party carries by Treason the Other loses by Cowardice Of These Deserters some are taken Off by Profit Pleasure Vanity Sloth Neglect or Partiality Others are led by their Passions as Fear Anger c. In all which Cases whoever preferrs a Private Interest to a Publique Betrayes his Trust. Some Peoples Mouths are Stopp'd with Offices Rewards Fair Promises Hopes of Preferment c. And These upon the very Crisis of a Debate find Twenty Shifs to waive the pinch of the Dispute and let the Question fall even though the Crown it self depend upon the Issue of it This is done either by coming too late or perhaps not at all by Going away too soon or saying Nothing when they are There by which Discouragements the Cause is lost only for want of Their Arguments and Voices to Turn the Scale Others are Drawn from Their Duties by Pleasure perhaps a Party at Tennis Bowles Chards a Pack of Dogs a Cock fight or a Horse-match a Comedy a Good-fellow or a Mistresse And while They are Thus Employ'd the Vigilant Faction steals a Vote That 's worth a Kingdom Some again are so Transported with the Vanity of Dresse and Language that rather then serve the Publique with one hair amisse or in one Broken Periode they 'll let the Publique Perish Mallent Rem-Publicam turbari quà m Capillos These while their Country lies at Stake are ordering of their Heads and Polishing the Phrase Shaping the Parts of a Set-Speech till 't is too late to use it Nothing methinks does lesse beseem a Grave Assembly then This same Facultatula loquendi this same Rhetoricall Twittle-twattle it spins out so much Time in Tedious Circumstance that it makes a man e'en sick of a Good Cause and for the very Form prejudg the Reason of it Sloth and Neglect are yet more dangerous in a Senatour nor onely in
Regard of Surprises from the Faction but of Discontentments likewise from the People These think a Wet Day or a Cold Morning a Sufficient Discharge of their Attendance and while they are taking t'other Napp or t'ther Bottle the Monarch perhaps has lost his Crown or the Subject his Liberty Come to Particular Cases how many Families are lost by Disappointments by Relying upon promises Delayes from Time to Time How many Iust and Sad Petitions are thrown aside unregarded as serving onely for waste Paper and so far from Reliefe they cannot obteyn so much as a bare Reading Distinguishing of Persons in Matters of Equity is furthermore a great Abuse where a Friend an Acquaintance or some By-Respect shall interrupt the Speedy and Direct Course of Iustice. I do not say Divert though to forbear helping the Right or not to hinder the Wrong because of such or such an Interest is but a Negative Oppression Those that are mov'd by Passions from their Duties are not lesse Culpable than the Rest. For a Good Patriot Fears Nothing but to be Dishonest Hates Nothing but Iniquity and knows no other Friend then Iustice. Is any Thing propos'd which to my Reason appears of Dangerous Consequence Unlawful to my Conscience Dishonorable to my Prince or Country Do I Discharge my Soul to God and to the World in not opposing it because forsooth 't is my Lords Interest or Project Where 't is my Office to withstand a Publique Injury 't is my Act if I suffer it Nor will it serve the turn to say Alas I 'm but one Man what should I struggle for A Noble Truâ—h and Equity though Single ought to be Maintein'd against the World But very rarely is That the Case for Those Particulars that under Colour of This Singlenesse relinquish and withdraw would in Conjunction cast the Ballance The Question is but This. Whether shall I rather venture the losse of an Office or the losse of my Country Whether shall I rather disoblige a Powerfull Subject or Betray my Lawfull Prince Whether in fine shall I rather chuse Modestly to Oppose a Faction or Tamely to desert my Conscience Some we find Prepossest with Personall Animosities and These Particular Piques are many Times the Bane of Publique Designes They do not so much heed the Matter as the Man that Promotes it They are resolv'd to like Nothing from That Hand and while they are Cavilling about Niceties and Nothings the adverse Party runs away with the Sum of the Contest Another Infelicity is where Elections are Carried by Recommendation Fortune or Affection without any Regard to the Abilities of Persons These are a Dangerous Party and a fit Subject to work upon for being more addicted to follow the Appearances then Capable of Comprehending the Reasons of Things They are not only Liable to fall into Mistakes but Obstinate Maintainers of Them and in all Cases Determinable by Plurality of Voyces the Greater Number of Fooles weighes down the more Prudentiall Counsells of Fewer wise Men Nay which is most Ridiculous and Miserable but that in Popular Suffrages it must be so His Vote many Times Casts a Kingdome that has not Brain enough to Rule his Private Family Deciding the Question without understanding the Debate We have Prosecuted This Theme of Miscariages far enough From the Discovery our next advance is to the Remedies of them The harder undertaking for Faults are more easily found then mended CAP. X. How to prevent the Beginnings and hinder the Growth of Seditions in General together with Certain Particular Remedies apply'd to the Distempers of Those Seven Interests mentioned in the foregoing Chapter THe Two main Pillars that support Majesty are Love and Reverence To which are oppos'd as the Foundation of a Prince his Ruine Contempt and Hatred What are Disloyall Actions but the Issue of Disloyall Thoughts Or what are Generall Tumults but the Rationall Effects of Generall Discontents The Violent part being no other then the Manifestation of a Treason allready Form'd and Perfected in the Affections So that to set the Heart Right is the Prime Duty of a Good subject and Then to observe the Law for Love of the Authority Kings are first Render'd Odious or Despis'd and in Persuance of Those Passions they come at last to be Dethron'd or Murther'd That is to be dethron'd or Murther'd Actually for even the first Malicious Motion was Murther in the Heart and betwixt God and our own Souls every Seditious Thought is a Rebellion Although no Prince can be Mighty without the Love of his People or Secure under their Hatred the One being Necessary to his Greatnesse and the Other Sufficient to his Undoing yet must we not suppose the Subjects Love more Needfull to their Prince then His to â—hem since upon His Protection depends Their Wellfare no lesse then upon Their Support His Power Because the Hazzard of disuniting is mutuall it must not be suppos'd that it is therefore Equall nor that the Crime is so where Tumult and Oppression are the Question They are Both ill but with exceeding odds of worse betwixt them The One does but affront the Mode of Government the Other strikes at Government it selfe the very Ends and Reason of it Peace Order and Society A Prince without the Hearts of his Subjects is in a bad Condition but Hee that falls from Hatred to Contempt His Case is Desperate For when they neither Love his Person nor Fear his Power They are both Provok'd to Contrive mischief and Embolden'd to Execute it These are the Generall and Enstaming Grounds of Seditions which may be easily prevented and Cut off in their next Immediate Causes The Difficulty is for a Prince to be Popular without making himself Cheap to Gratify his People without Derogating from his Authority and so to Comply with the Interest of his Subjects as not to be wanting to the Necessities of his Crown In the Due Temperation of which Mixture Consists in a Great measure the skill of Governing and thereupon depends the Peace and Safety of the Government In all well-ordered Monarchies there are certain Metes and Boundaries that Part the Rights of King and People and These are either Laws or Customs providing for the Common Good and Safety both of the Subject in his Obedience and of the Sovereign in his Authority Let a Prince therefore stick to his antient Laws and he may be sure his People will stick to him and more he needs not ask being by Those Laws arm'd with Power sufficient to the Intent of Government or at the worst if any Defect there be the Fault is imputed to the Constitution and not to the Person There may indeed occurr such Cases and Emergencies of Imminent and Publique Danger as being un-foreseen by the Wisdom of former Times are left without a Rule Of These beyond Dispute The only Supreme Governour is the only Supreme Iudge and under so strict a Necessity He not only may but ought
Schismes may be kept out of the CHURCH Their Encrease hinder'd and the Seditious Consequences of Them Prevented with the Remedies of other Mischiefs arising from Disorders in the CHURCH SInce so it is that Divisions in the Church have no further Interest in This place then as they Lead to Seditions in the State the shortest Cuâ—t I know will be to reduce all of That Tendency to Sr Francis Bacon ' s Notable Comprizall of Them under Two Properties If a New â—ct have not Two Propertyes fear it not for says he it will not spread The One is the Supplanting or the Opposing of Authority established For Nothing is more Popular than That The Other is the Giving Licence to Pleasures and a Voluptuous Life For as for speculative Heresyes such as were in Antient Times the Arrians and now the Arminians though they work mightily upon Mens Wits yet they do not produce any great Alterations in States except it be by the Help of Civill Occasions Now when a Prince meets with a Faction Thus Marq'd let him Look to himself for there are against him the best Counterfeit of a Friend and the most Deadly Composition of an Enemy the Strongest of all Allurements the most Popular of all Designs and the most Rationall Meanes to Accomplish it But the Question will be How to Prevent what is not as yet Discover'd To which we answer that the Sect here spoken of is New either Absolutely or Comparatively If Absolutely Observe what Carnall Interest they drive If Comparatively marque what Copy they follow and Measure the Disciple by his Master One Safe and Certain Remedy be the Novelty what it will is not to suffer any Innovation whatsoever without a warrantable Authority no not so much as a Publick Dispute against an Establish'd Order from a Private Person Nay more let the Dissent be Right or Wrong 't is the same thing as to the Reason of Government though not so to the Conscience of the Dissenter Suppose the Subject of an Idolatrous Prince within his Masters Dominions and Contrary to his Expresse Order Preaches against the Religion there Establish'd he does well to Discharge his Conscience but let him have a Care of the Consequence for if in Order to the making of Good Christians he makes Bad Subjects his Zeal will hardly acquit him of Sedition God does not allow of Proposing Good Ends by Ill Means and of Reforming Religion by Rebellion Let him have a Care likewise if he comes to suffer for well-doing how he behaves himself for if he but open his Mouth against the Civill Magistrate as a Persecutour he betrayes himself to be an Hypocrite There are Two Sects whom I dare say This Doctrine will not please i.e. the Pontifical Presbyterians and the Rigid Iesuites The Latter of which have for Convenience sake been True to One King The Former give the Devill his Due since Presbyterians had a Being were never True to Any or if they ever were let him that Loves Them best or knows them better shew me but when where how and with a Noverint universi I do here declare I 'll make a Publique Recantation Till Then wee 'll take the Presbyterian for the Cock-Schismatique and if Sir Bacon's Note holds Good the Dangerous New Sect against Whom no Caution can be too early no Importunity too Earnest no Restriction too Severe These are They that according to the Lord St. Albans Propagate Religion by Warrs Force Consciences Nourish Seditions Authorise Conspiracies and Rebellions That put the Sword into the Peoples hand and Dash the first Table against the Second In short all Those Popular and Supplanting Politiques which we find only here and there Scatter'd and Thin in Other Sects are by These People drawn into a Practicable Methode a Set-form of Sedition They Govern Their Looks their Words their Actions Nay their very Dresse Garbe and Accent by a Rule They are Instructed when to Beseech and when to Expostulate when to Flatter and when to Threaten when to Offer and when to deny when to Presse Swearing and when to Declaim against it when to Save and when to Kill In the first Scene ye have the Schismatique upon his Knees begging his Prince into a Dispensation for Scrupulous Consciences that perhaps stick at such and such Ceremonies the Crosse the Surplice or the like Let but the Sovereign Comply Thus far and what 's the Fruit of This Indulgence Within a Day or Two they come for more and by Degrees more still till at the Last they find the Government of the Church as Troublesome as they did the Rites of it and Bishops as great a Grievance as Ceremonies Where the King Stops They Cavill and now from Petitioners for Freedome to Themselves they are Grown to be most Insolent denyers of it to Others Their Art is next to Tune the People which is best done by the Pulpit where One half of their Businesse is Invective against Prelacy and the Other is spent in Well-Acted Supplications that God would turn the Kings Heart Accompting His yielding to all They Aske as a Divine Assurance that their Prayers are heard But if the Monarch still holds out what Pitty 't is they Cry so sweet a Prince should be Misled and Then they fall upon his Evill Counsellours still Taking all he Gives and Strugling for the Rest till having first Disrob'd him of his Rights Depriv'd him of his Friends Step after Step they attempt his Sacred Person and at last take away his Life Here 's their Glorious King the End of all their Vwues and Covenants Their Prayers and Fastings or in a word the summe of their Religion It was great Blasphemy says Sir F. B. when the Devill said I will Ascend and be like the Highest But it is greater Blasphemy to Personate God and bring him in saying I will Descend and be like the Prince of Darknesse and what is it better to make the Cause of Religion to descend to the Cruell and Execrable Actions of Murthering Princes Butchery of People and Subversion of States and Governments He that stands firm against not the Wit or Bravery but the Fawning and Treacherous Insinuations of This Faction may make himself sport with all Other Practices and Combinations whatever and That Prescription which helps This Evill serves for all other Publique and Intestine Maladies I think we may be Positive that there neither is nor ever was in Nature any Society of Men without a Vitious Mixture under what Government or Governour-soever I think we may be as Positive likewise that Those Ambitious and Unsatisfy'd Particulars with which all Constitutions are infested are only Deterr'd from troubling all Governments by the want of Opportunities to Plot and Contrive and by the Hazzards they meet with in putting Those Plots in Execution Wherefore it ought to be a Prince his first Care to Choak These Seeds of Discord which may be Effected by a Provision of Orthodox Ministers to the
the Combination If through the fault of Negligent Officers tho Distemper be gone too far and the Confederacy grown Strong and Bold enough to struggle with the Law Then Other Arts must be found out either to amuse Ensnare or Disunite the Faction The Last Resort is violence which must be Timely too before the Reverence of Authority is quite Lost. And let the King Himself appear not only to Ask but Take the Heads of the Sedition before the Quarrell is Transferr'd from his Ministers to his Person if he but Stoops he Falls How horrible a Mutiny was That which Caesar Quieted at Placentia Single Unarm'd and with One wretched word QUIRITES Nec dum desaeviat Ira Expectat Medios properat tentare Furores Nor Waites he till the Hot Fit should asswage But at the Maddest Scorns and Braves their Rage As the Resolve was Great and the Successe Good so doubtlesse was the Reason of This Action For by the Sodainnesse he Prevented their Agreement and by the Generous Contempt of Danger he was almost Certain to Divide the Revolt making the Nobler Part of the Mutiniers to Adore him and the Baser to Fear hâ—m If the bare Presence of a General could have This Power upon a Disciplin'd Inâ—â—ns'd and Daring Army what should a Lawful Monarch apprehend from an Unpractic'd and Loose Multitude But the Dispute is not yet Brought to This Extremity our Purpose in This Place being rather to Frustrate and Disappoint the Malice in the Contrivance then Crush it in the Execution To which end are Requisite great Diligence Secrecy Watchfulnesse Moderation and at-what-rate-soever a strict and General Intelligence All which together make up a Necessary and Befitting Prudence Sir Bacon's Counsell is to Begin with Reforming Abuses a worke seldom out of Season but never more needfull then upon the very first Murmurings and Motions toward Troubles Most especially let Great Towns be Supply'd with Good Ministers and the Earlier the Better least the Multitude think it Extorted and the Guilty become too Strong for the Innocent In ought to be Impartiall too too for a Toleration on the One hand will make Iustice it selfe look like a Persecution on the other Beside That it takes away the Subject of the Claâ—â—ur and exalts the Reputation of the Monarch in making him appear the Common Father of his People By these meanes may the Church be Purg'd of Schismâ— without much hazzard of Sedition If the Plot be allready Modeâ—â—'d and the Multitude Leaven'd The Sovereign is to look for Petitions on the Behalfe of Ejected Ministers in the Names of Thousands and Accompanied with the Rudeness rather of a Riot then a Request The Petitioners may be Put off Threatned or Punished c. according to the Merit of their Behaviour out let a watch be set upon the Leaders of Those Troupes their Haunts and Correspondents Let it be Marqu'd who Interceedes who Mitigates on Their behalfe Let the Motions of the Disaffected Clergy be likewise Observ'd which of the Nobility They Frequent and in fiue Spyes Employ'd upon all their Considerable Privacyes for Let the Cry be what it will the Cause of these Disorders is Ambition Of which in another Place and with One Word more wee 'll Conclude This Poynt That may be Conscience in the People which is Sedition in the Minister wherefore in all Schismaticall Ruptures I could wish all possible Favour to the Common sort of the Laity and as much Severity to the Offending Clergy Sect. II. How to prevent Seditions arising from the Disorders of the BENCH WE have begun with the Church and the Bench properly followes which is but to give Them the Same Place in the Order of This Discourse which they have in the Argument of it Was there ever any Considerable Rebellion I do not say Revolt That was not usher'd in by Corrupt Divines or Lawyers or Both of Them And 't is no wonder since upon These Two Interests depends the Grand Concern both of our Souls and Bodyes One Reason of their Forwardnesse may be This that they may doe more Harme upon Safe and Easie Termes then other People Bolt a Rebellion out of a Text Dethrone a King with a Moot-Point and Execute a Bishop at a Reading All which is done with a Wet Finger for when a People are Discontented 't is but Picking a Scripture or a Statute for the Time and Purpose and commit the Rest to Application These two Interests hold so Good Intelligence it is almost Pitty to part Them and Compar'd with the Rest Supposing all in Disorder They mind me of a Combination I have observ'd betwixt a Beagle and a Grey-hound the One Starts the Hare and Yelps the Other Catches it but by Consent they part the Quarry As I Reckon These Men of the Robe to be the very Pests of Humane Nature when they Degenerate from the Prime End of their Institution So take them on the Other side in the Due Exercise of their Callings they are the Blessings and the Pillars of Society A word now to the Lawyer apart The Common Crime of Vitious Lawyers is Avâ—rice and Those Inducements to Sedition which in the Chapter next fore-going This we have divided into Corruption Partiality Oppression Chargeable Delayes c. are but as Severall Branches from That Root of Covetousnesse Nay take their more Pernicious and Vile Practices Their Misconstruction of Laws Misapplying of Presidents Torturing or Embezelling of Record c. What is All This but Corruption in another Dresse A Project to Embroyle the Government that They may get Mony by Setling it again Or if they can procure a Change They make the best Market they can of their Country and Betray it to That Faction that will Give Most for it Nay when That 's done and that Matters will come right again in spight of them They shall Betray it Back again to the Right owner at once Lamenting and adoring their Past and Profitable Transgressions These are the miserable fruits of Corruption Others there are that Erre through want of Iudgment And That 's a sad Case too for Mistakes coming from the Lipps of a Iudg passe for Oracles Others there are again that understand the Right but in some Cases dare not own it And These deliver up the People to day for fear of the King and the Prerogative to morrow for fear of the Subject From hence it seems to me that a Prince his Chiefest Care in This Particular of the Law lies in a Narrow Compasse That is in securing and preserving his Courts of Iudicature from Corruption and in Supplying them with men of Eminent Abilities and Courage These are the Instruments to make a Prince and People Happy nor does any Thing more Conduce to it then the Carying of an Even and Impartiall Hand upon the Ballance of Government and Obedience We come now to the Choyce of Persons and There the Difficulty lies Some Deceive the World
The most Dangerous Poverty Corruption the Cause of Scarcity * A word us'd in Westminster Schoole when a Boy Counterfeits Sick Private Hoards breed Publique Penury The Composition of Wicked Ministers of State The Misery of them If either they look Back Forward Round about Above them Bâ—low or within them The Sollicâ—tous estate of the Guilty Taxes may cause or occasion a Scarcity divers wayes Subjâ—cts are to Obey without Disputing ☜ Note Leave no Marque standing to remember a Discourtesie by Josh. 4. 6. Shiftings passes for Wisdome Excessive Building Knavery of â—radesmen Pride The Coâ—ntry is sure to be undone by a Waâ—r The Fruits of it A Discontented Nobleman Ambition Pride Râ—venge The Rich Chuâ—le The Contentious Free bornâ—Subject ☜ The Dangerous mixture of a Representative The Designing Party Their Industry and Combination The Matter they work upon Their Maner of Proceedâ—ng ☜ The Permâ—tters of Seditious Contrivements The Deserters of their Trust are taken off by Profit Pleasure Vanity by Sloth and Neglect ☜ by Partiality Passion Fear or Personal Animosity Fools are fit Instâ—umâ—nts for Knâ—ves Love and Reverence are the Pillars of Majesty The Power of a Prince depends upon the Love of his People The Grâ—unds of Sedition Let a Prince Stick to his Laws and his People will stick to him The Oath of Protecting implyes a Power of Protecting Where a King has it not in his Power to Oppresse his People They have it in Theirs to Destroy their King ☜ A Mixture of Indulgence and Severity Obliges the Loyall and Aws the Refractary The Influeâ—ce of Prudence and Courage Aâ— Prince that bears Affronts and Familiarities from his Subjects Lessens himself How to hindâ—r the Sprâ—ading of a Seditious Humour ☜ Let a Prince keep an Eye over Great Assemblies Let him be Quâ—ck and Watchfull The mostdangeâ—â—us of all Sects A sure way to prerent Schisme Have a Care ☜ The Presbyterians Set-form And Methode Their Modesty ☞ The means of Preventing Schisme Object Petition fâ—â— Peace pag. 4 5. Answ. The Hazzards of Toleration ☜ The Foundaâ—ion of Presbytery ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 239. Let Pagans blush at These Christians ☜ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 263. The Growth of Schisme ☜ A Noble Resolve Let the Prince Reform betime And Impartially Note Ambition is the Cause no matter what 's the Cry Corrupt Divines and Lawyers are in the forlorne of all Rebellions ☞ But the Contrary are the Pillars and Blessings of Society The Common Crime of Vitious Lawyers is Avarice The Basest of Corruptions An Ignorant Judg is a Dangerous Minister And so is a Timorous A hard matter to make a good choice A Rule to Chuse by He nugâ— sâ—riâ— duc 〈◊〉 in mala ☞ A way to prevent Treasonous Mistakes The Contrivers of Seditions are of Three Sorts The Puritan ☞ Religion is but Talk Every man for himself A Traytour is of no Religion No ill Story The Presbyterian has gotten a Streyn A Ceremony may be as well impos'd as a 〈◊〉 ☜ ☞ Ambition dangerous in a Favourite A Caution Ambition does better in a Souldiour then in a Counsellour It is the Interest of a Prince to dispose of Offices by Particular Direction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 240. How to 〈◊〉 an Insolent Favourite The Danger of a Favourite that upholds a Faction And menage of his Design St. 〈◊〉 Bacon ☜ How to disappoint an Ambitious Design Favouritâ—s necessary to the Prince and desirable to the People Concerning the Choice of Servants Let them be Honest and Fit Of approved Loyalty to thâ— Father Not upon Recommendation Publique Natures for Publique Places Not One to all Purposes Let a Prince set his Confident his Bounds afore-hand In Points of Conscience Honour and Convenience let not a Favourite presse the Sovereign The Danger of Over greatnesse as to the People A Proud man in Power Easily crush'd A Covetous Great man The Mischief of False Intelligence Good Advice 〈…〉 Counsel 〈◊〉 ☞ Prudence provides for the worst Reward and â—unishment keep People in Order Honest Truths are Dangerous A Case put The Lower Region of the Court. Four or Five Beggers in Chief ☞ Corrupt Officers a General Pest. Ill-Pay the reason of Ill-Payment Want of Mony makes People Religious The Ill-principled Courtier Dangers from the Camp How Mutinies may be caused ☜ Good Pay will bear good Discipline Modelling and Disâ—banding are dangerous How to New-Modell an Army How to Dis-band The Causes of Revolts A good Choice is the best Security against a Revolt The Danger of an Illâ—order'd City ☜ Pretext of Religion is a dangerâ—us and wicked Quarrell Is there a God Or â—s there None All Seditions proceed from Misgovernment Begin with the Clergy to prevent Schisme Let the Magistracy be well-affected Oppression procur'd by Ill Instruments ☞ Though the Levy be Extraordinary let the way be Ordinary Privileges are Sacred ☞ Poverty is a terrible Enemy The Prince not to forsake his Metropoliâ— Let the Choice be Legall and Prudent ☜ Better the Sovereign Reforme then the Counsell The effects of a Good Choyce and of a Bad. The Mischieves of Partiality ☜ 〈◊〉 a â—yranny then 〈◊〉 Anarchy The Antient Prudence of England for the Prevenâ—ing of Seditâ—ons The Custome of 〈◊〉 or Frank-Pledges The Condition of it Oathes of Allegeance The Judges Charge concerning Tâ—easons c. Knights Service Commission of Array Libido Dominandi Causa Bâ—lli Sal. The King is above Ambition And the Commons Below it ☞ The Interests of the King and Commons are Inseperable The Peerage are either as Petty Kings 〈◊〉 Subjâ—cts The Excellent Government of England was subverâ—ed by a mean â—action Security lost us ☞ A word to my Back fâ—iends Object Answ. Ask Doctor Owen and 〈…〉 That was Anglicâ—e D. â— A Private Person may discover a Publique Enemy The King the Law the Parliment and the Counsell are Sacred Beware of Imputing the faults of a Faction to the Government The Faction has a great Advantage The Presbyterians are True to their Principles but not to their Profession Their Industry ☞ Two Libels The Libellers Character Kings had need to be well enform'd ☜ ☞ 8 H. 6. 11. 11 H. 6. 6. Edict Iuly 7. 1606. Ill Appearances The Custome of Frank-Pledges revived ☜ Discoveries Rewarded Judges in their circuits are good Intelligencerg ☞ How This Discourse may become usefull Treasons Encouraged ☜ Why was Late King Murther'd Not for Religion Nor Tyranny Nor Cruelty Nor for want of Abilities and Valour Nor for Impiety or Intemperance The Kings Indulgence was his Ruine Presbytery is a Specifique Poyson to Monarchy king Iames his Answer to a Presbyterian Queen Elizabeth â—uieted the Schismatiques by Severity Sâ—r did King Iames. Three Disadvantages of King Charles the martyr The Originall of his Troubles The Progresse of them The House of Commons Affronts him The King put to a sad Choice ☜ The Kings Speech The Bounties of the Faction are Baites The Petition of Right His Majesties first Answer to the Petition of Right The Commons Cavill The King Passes the Bill The Commons Requitall His Majesty Explains himself The Commons Inquisition and Insolence ☜ The Protestation of the Commons Their Contest and Dissolution The Kings Mercy Abusâ—d ☜ Abus'd again ☜ The King Betray'd by his Counsell Scotch Declar. Pag. 124. The Kings Mercy again abus'd The Ingratitude of the Scotch Presbyterians Now see the English The Bounty and Grace of the King The Requital of the Presbyterians ☞ His Majesties Patience and Goodnesse Ruin'd him The Kings grand Fatalityes