Wherefore he that giveth the Orders trusteth not to the Army but the Army trusteth him It is no otherwise in the ordering of a Commonwealth Why say we then that the people are not to be trusted while certain it is that in a Commonwealth rightly ordered they can have no other motion then according unto the Orders of their Commonwealth Have we not seen what difference there may be in an House elected by the Counties onely and an House elected both by the Boroughs the Counties Is this so much from the people as from their Orders The Lacedemonian Senate for Life before the institution of the Ephori was dangerous after the institution of the Ephori was not dangerous The Venetians before the introduction of their present policy were very tumultuous since the introduction of the same are the most serene Commonwealth Was this from the people who are the same or from the difference of their Orders If you will trust Orders and not men you trust not unto the people but unto your Orders see then that your Orders be secure and the people fall not You the present Rulers of England now the object of Angels and Men in the fear of God look to it I dare boldly say and the world will say to all posterity If England through the want of Orders be ruined it was not that you needed to trust the people but that the people trusted you And of what Orders have some of you that lay the people so low and think your selves onely to be trusted made offer Do you not propose That they who are or shall be intrusted with Power or Authority be such as shall be found to be most eminent for Godliness Faithfulness and Constancy to the Good Old Cause and Interest of these Nations Now I beseech you consider if you mean to make your selves Judges without the People or Parliament in such manner as you have owned your Commander in Chief who are Godly and what the Interest of the Nation is what kind of Commonwealth this must make Or if you mean to make the People Judges without which it is impossible there should be any well-ordered Commonwealth whether you can give them any other Rule then according unto Moses Take ye wise men and understanding and known among your Tribes Consider whether those you would indemnifie for strengthning the late unnatural and dishonourable Yoak be eminent for Godliness Faithfulness to the Good Old Cause or for asserting the Interest of these Nations and whether to impose such Qualifications as may bring these or the like again into power be the more probable way unto a Free-State or to leave the People acording unto the Rule of Moses unto their Judgement in these Cases You propose That to the end the Legislative Authority of this Commonwealth may not by their long sitting become burthensome or inconvenient there may be effectual provision made for a due succession thereof I beseech you to consider what Example can be produced of any one Commonwealth wherein the Legislative Authority was not continually extant or sitting and what reason there can be that it should possibly be otherwise the Government remaining a Commonwealth Consider whether in case the two Houses of Parliament had been heretofore perpetually sitting the Government had not been a Common-wealth Whether the intervals of the same were not that in a good part which caused it to be Monarchical and so whether the Legislative Authority in a Common-wealth being intermitted must not convert the Common-wealth into Monarchy in case the intervals be guided by a Single Person or into Oligarchy in case they be guided by a Council Lastly Consider whether such a Council in the intervals of Parliaments be not of all others that Molehil by which a Tyrant can be most conveniently raised for a jump into a Throne or what there is in this case to withstand him though White-hall should be sold or pul'd down Again you propose That the Legislative Power be in a Representative consisting of an House successively chosen by the People and of a select Senate co-ordinate in Power Upon which I beseech you to consider Whether there can be any safe Representative of the People not constituted of such a number and by such Rules as must take in the Interest of the whole People whether there be not difference between the interest which a People can have under Monarchy and the Interest which a People ought to have under a Commonwealth and whether it be a good Argument that an Assembly of four hundred upon intervals was a sufficient Representative of the People under Monarchy or under Lords on whom they depended therefore the like may be sufficient under a Commonwealth where they are their own Lords and have no dependence I beseech you to consider whether it be natural unto any Assembly to resolve otherwise then according unto the Interest of that Assembly Whether it be not natural unto the Senate especially being not elected by the People but obtruded and as I suspect for life to Debate according as they intend to Resolve and to Resolve according to the Interest of the Few or of a Party Whether it be not unnatural confused and dangerous unto a Representative of the People rightly constituted to Debate whether it be not natural to such a Representative to Resolve according unto the Interest of the whole People Whether the Senate Resolving according unto the Interest of the Few and the Representative Resolving according to the Interest of the Many be not the certain way of creating feud between the Senate and the people or of introducing Blood and Civil War And last of all whether to declare the Senate and the Representative co-ordinate be not to give unto either Council both the Debate and the Result indifferently and in that the inavoydable occasion of such feud Lastly you propose That the Executive Power be in a Council of State Upon which I beseech you to consider whether ever the Prytans in Athens the Colledge in Venice or a Council of State in any Commonwealth had any Executive Power except in the management perhaps of a War or Treaty with forraign States Upon the whole I beseech you to consider whether these Propositions and such like be not contrary unto the whole course of popular Prudence in all or any one Common-wealth and tending unto the certain destruction or at least intolerable confusion of the people Yet are these I suppose intended by you as a bar unto Monarchy and a guard unto the Liberty of Conscience To the ORDERS of a COMMONWEALTH The whole Territory is equally divided into fifty Tribes or Shires in every one of these Tribes the people of each Parish elect out of themselves one man in five to be for that year a Deputy of that Parish I but they will choose Cavalieres or Presbyterians Well if that be the worst for discourse sake be it so These Deputies thus chosen in each Parish are upon some certain day
in their year to assemble at the Capital of their Tribe or Shire and there to elect a few to be Knights or Senators and a fuller number to be Burgesses or Deputies in the Representative of the people Good and these also must therefore be such as were their Electors So the soveraign Assemblies of the Nation will consist of Presbyterians and Cavalieres and being thus constituted will either introduce Monarchy or invade the Liberty of Conscience or both But these at their Election take an Oath of Allegiance unto the Comonwealth An Oath is nothing How not among Christians Let us see what it hath been among Heathens Brutus having driven out the Tarquins or Roman Kings thought the spirit of that people not yet fit to be trusted with their Liberty and for this cause gave them an Oath whereby they abjured Kings which was then thought and found in that case to be enough But if this would not have served the turn what could For Brutus to have expelled the Kings and yet not to have given the people their Liberty he well knew was not to have driven forth Monarchy but to have laid Obligation upon the people to bring it back again in hatred of the Oligarchy as we in our way of proceeding have felt and continue still to feel yet blame the people upon as good grounds as if we should say The people are impatient of trusting Oligarchy with their Liberty therefore the people are not to be trusted with their Liberty But supposing an Oath were as slight a matter as indeed in these days it is made these Soveraign Assemblies though they should be thus constituted of Presbyterians and Cavalieres onely yet could in no wise either introduce Monarchy or invade the Liberty of Conscience for these Reasons The natural tendency of every thing is unto the preservation of it self but Cavalieres and Presbyterians under these Orders are a Commonwealth therefore their natural tendency must be to the preservation of the Common-wealth It is not so long since a Roundhead was made a Prince did he make a Commonwealth Or what more reason can there be why if you make Cavalieres and Independents a Commonwealth they should make a King What experience is there in the world that the greatest Cavalieres being once brought under the Orders of popular Government rightly balanced did not thenceforth detest Monarchy The people of Rome Libertatis dulcedine nondum experta were the greatest Cavalieres in the world for above one hundred years together they obstructed their Senate which would have introduced a Commonwealth and caused them to continue under Monarchy but from the first introduction of popular Government continued under perfect detestation of the very name Putting the case that the Senate could have a will to destroy it self and introduce Monarchy you must also put the case that they may have some interest to do it for the will of every Assembly ariseth from the interest of the same Now what interest can there be in a Senate thus instituted to destroy it self and set up Monarchy The Senate can do nothing but by proposing unto the people it is not possible for them to agree unto any thing that can be proposed without debating it nor can any Debate tend unto any such agreement but in the force of reasons thereunto conducing Now what reason had ever any Senate or can any Senate ever have to incline them unto such an end No man nor Assembly can will that which is impossible but where a Commonwealth is rightly balanced that a Monarchy can there have any Balance except the Senate can perswade people to quit three parts in four of the whole Territory unto a Prince or to a Nobility is impossible But if the introduction of Monarchy can neither be in the will of the Senate though that should consist altogether of Cavalieres and Presbyterians then much less can it be in the will of the Assembly of the people though this also should consist altogether of Cavalieres and Presbyterians But while we talk that the people will be so rash in Elections we observe not that this is but the rashness of the Few exalting their wisdom above the wisdom of the people If it be not seen that a Commonwealth so ordered as hath been shewn must of necessity consist in the Senate of the wisdom and in the popular Assembly of the interest of the whole Nation after such manner that there can be no Law not invented by the wisest and enacted by the honestest what the people under such a Form shall do cannot be judged and if this be seen we must either believe that the exclusion of Monarchy and the protection of Liberty of Conscience concern not the wisdom or interest of the Nation in which case they are points upon which the present power ought in no wise to insist or that being according unto the wisdom and interest of the Nation that wisdom and interest so collected as hath been shewn must be much more able to judge of obliged to adhere unto and effectual to prosecute those ends then any hundred or two hundred men in the world were they never so select and unbyassed Which nevertheless is not said against the ways we have to go but for the end in which we are to acquiesce The distinction of Liberty into Civil and Spiritual is not ancient but of a latter date there being indeed no such distinction for the Liberty of Conscience once granted separable from Civil Liberty Civil Liberty can have no security It was the onely excuse that the late Tyrant pretended for his Usurpation that he coukl see no other means to secure the Liberty of Conscience Suppose an Oligarchy were like-minded would it follow that the Tyrant did not or that the Oligarchy could not usurp Civil Liberty Or is not this the onely plausible way by which they might What encouragement except for present ends or some short time hath liberty of Conscience had to trust more unto men then Civil Liberty Or what became of that Civil Liberty which was at any time trusted unto a Prince or to the Oligarchy On the other side where hath that Free State or Commonwealth been ever known that gave not Liberty of Conscience In Israel at the worst or when it was scarce a Common-wealth Paul earnestly beholding the Council that is the Sanhedrim or Senate of the Jews cryed out Men and Brethren of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question and when he had so said there arose dissention between the Pharisees and the Sadduces For the Sadduces say That there is no resurrection neither angel nor spirit but the Pharisees confess both Act. 23. Howbeit the Sadduces for the rest adhered unto the Scriptures of the Old Testament of which the Pharisees made little or no account in respect of their Oral Law or traditions Whence it followeth that in this Senate there were two Religions and by consequence that in this Commonwealth there was
Liberty of Conscience and so much the rather in that besides these Sects and that also of the Essenes this Commonwealth consisted in a good part of Proselytes of the Gates who did not at all receive the Law of Moses but onely the precepts given by God to Noah Paul Act 17. in like manner seeming to be a setter forth of strange gods in the Commonwealth of Athens because he preached unto them Jesus and the Resurrection and the Athenians being given to spend their time in telling or hearing some new thing they took him and brought him not by application of any violence but out of curiositie and delight in novelties unto Areopagus or unto the famous Senate in Athens called The Areopagites honoured by Cicero to furnish an Argument against Atheists where he argued That to say The World is governed without God is as if one should say That the Commonwealth of Athens is governed without the Areopagites Paul being thus brought unto Areopagus or unto the place that you may see it was not under custody where the Senators used to walk stood in the midst of Mars-hill and preached now the Areopagites or Senators were some Epicureans who held as the Sadduces and others Stoicks who held as the Pharisees and when they heard of the resurrection of the dead some that is the Epicureans mocked and others that is the Stoicks said We will hear thee again of this matter And Paul for another Argument that he was all this while at his own disposing full Freedom departed from among them Howbeit certain men clave unto him and believed among which was Dionysius the Areopagite So in the Senate of Athens there were now three Religions the Epicurean Stoick and Christian whence it must needs follow that in the Commonwealth of Athens there was Liberty of Conscience Men that are vers'd in Roman Authors will have little Reason to doubt that the Learnedst of this People gave not much credit unto the fabulous Religion that among them was national among these as is yet apparent by his Writings was Cicero who nevertheless lamenteth That he found it easier to pull down a Religion then to set up any yet was neither Cicero nor any man of his judgement for this less capable of being Consul or of any other Magistracy All things are not equally clear in every Story yet shall no man give one reason or example that it hath been otherwise in any Commonwealth It is true that the Popish Commonwealths do not give the Liberty of Conscience No man can give that which he hath not they depend in part or in the whole as to Religion upon the Church of Rome and so have not the Liberty of Conscience to give but even these do not take it away for there is no Popish Commonwealth that indureth any Inquisition Now I say If there be no reason nor example that a Commonwealth ever did invade the Liberty of Conscience either there must be some cause in Nature which hath hitherto had no effect or there is no reason why a Commonwealth can invade the Liberty of Conscience But the reason why it cannot is apparent for the power that can invade the Liberty of Conscience can usurp civil Liberty and where there is a power that can usurp civil Liberty there is no Common-wealth To think otherwise is to measure a Commonwealth by the overflowing and boundless passions of a Multitude not by those Laws or Orders without which a Free People can no otherwise have a course then a free River without the proper Chanel Yet as far as we in this Nation do yet stand from this object we can perceive a difference between men and Orders or Laws A man will trust the Law for a thousand pound nay must trust it with his whole Estate But he will not trust a man for an hundred pounds or if he do he may repent it They who dare trust men do not understand men and they that dare not trust Laws or Orders do not understand a Commonwealth I told a Story of my Travels to some Gentlemen that were pleased with it The Italians are a grave and a prudent Nation yet in some things no less extravagant then the wildest particularly in their Carnaval or sports about Shrovetide in these they are all Mummers not with our Modesty in the night but for divers dayes together and before the Sun during which time one would think by the strangeness of their Habit that Italy were once more overrun by Goths and Vandals or new peopled with Turks Moors and Indians there being at this time such variety of shapes Pageants Among these at Rome I saw one which represented a Kitchin with all the proper Utensils in use and action The Cooks were all Cats and Kitlings set in such frames so ty'd and so ordered that the poor creatures could make no motion to get loose but the same caused one to turn the spit another to baste the meat a third to scim the pot and a fourth to make green-sauce If the Frame of your Common-wealth be not such as causeth every one to perform his certain function as necessarily as this did the Cat to make green-sauce it is not right But what talk we of Frames or Orders though we have no certain Frame no fitting Orders yet in this Balance there are bounds set even by His Hand who stilleth the raging of the Sea and the madness of His People Let the more wary Cavalier or the firy Presbyterian march up when he may into the Van he shall lead this Nation into a Commonwealth or into certain perdition But if the old Officers men for the greater part of small Fortunes but all of large Souls ancient Heroes that dared to expose themselves unto ruine for their Country be restored unto their most deserved commands this will be done and done without a bloody nose or a cut finger We hope ye are Saints but if you be men look with all your might with all your prudence above all with fervent imploration of GOD's gracious Assistance who is visibly crowning you unto the well-ordering of your Commonwealth In the manner consists the main matter Detest the base itch of the narrow Oligarchy If your Commonwealth be rightly instituted seven years will not pass ere youâ— clusters of Parties Civil and Religious vanish not through any force as when cold weather kills flies but by the rising of greater Light as when the Sun puts out Candles These in the reason of the thing are demonstrable but suit better with the spirit of the present times by way of Prophesie England shall raise her Head to ancient Glory the Heavens shall be of the old Metal the Earth no longer Lead nor shall the sounding Air eternally renounce the Trumpet of Fame Ja. Harrington May 16. MDCLIX FINIS