Clergy or feare of refunding the profits made of Abby Lands did offer to cover her blemishes with the Crowne must conclude there could be no better refuge for her in prudence then to side with such as did maintaine the Church of Rome it selfe to be Basterdized And for the dangers probability might threaten to such a totall defection all being avoided by her tyrannicall Father her Councell in whom she was the happiest ever waved the English Scepter thought a dispencing with them lesse prejudiciall to her affaires then the tedious ceremonies incident to a Reconciliation with Rome Neither was the progresse the Protestants made in Germany France and Switserland a small provocation who by letters instigated her to this resolution the hopes of the Councell of Trent not being quite lost because they found a generall desire in all Princes to see the power of Rome moderated And that she was rather throwne by necessity then fell of her owne accord from the Church of Rome appeares by the Ceremonies used at her Inauguration all purely Catholique so as though she was not unwilling to give the new Profession hope she could not be brought suddenly to put the old in despair not indeavouring to bring in a greater Reformation then she found but suffered the Bishops to besprinkle her Raigne with the bloud of some and inrich her Exchequer with the livelyhoods of many more that were so zealous as to desire a review of such errours as they presumed the base ends of Henry the Eighth had let slip And these were then persecuted though of most exemplary lives whose followers God hath in our daies beene pleased to requite with the most miraculous successe that ever crowned the endeavours of an Army And for a farther confirmation that this totall separation from the Pope grew rather in the minds of the people then the Prince All the endeavours they could use were not able to abrogate the ceremonies of Crosse Ring and Surpleece though confess'd by all of no more absolute necessity then what they derived from the breath of Authority But their true end was to discover such consciences as were irreconcilable to Rome unto which they had then and doe still drive on a designe of returning Provided they could by an universall conjunction of Princes bring the Pope to renounce the power he pretends to have over Kings in that which is meerly temporall And if I am not fouly mistaken the too vigorous prosecution of this project was the cause of the murdering the two last Henryes of France Therefore such as hinder the establishing a Free State oppose the most probable way of suppressing Superstition and discovering Truth which in time will by the blessing of God worke it selfe into Vnity I doe not write this out of an humour of singularity or to cast dirt upon the Memory of Queene Elizabeth who in my opinion deserves to be celebrated above all the Princes I ever heard of but to manifest this truth That Monarchs look upon all Religions with love or disdaine as they find them sute with their worldly concernments The like may be said of most of the Princes in Germany who tooke part with Luther to have a pretence to seize upon the rich Monasteries and Lands of the Church And though humane policy may inject the same thoughts into the minds of Senatours yet purity of Religion is likelier to find friendship among many then one Neither is the small countenance the French give to those of the Reformation under a shallower policy then to balance all partiality which the Pope may be terrified out of a dread of his power to shew the King of Spaine to the French King's disadvantage being allwayes able by their assistance to make the like booty of the Gallican Church as Henry the Eighth did of the English Neither had the rich revenues of the Roman Profession which Christian Princes have long since surveyed as too great a patrimony for a few Priests beene untaken in but that the Catholique King is tied not onely by a contrary but a stronger interest to keepe up the Pope from a totall suppression because he hath nothing to shew for the possession of divers of his territories and the dispensation of so many incestuous Matches but the power his Holinesse arrogates to make any thing lawfull towards God or Man Yet if any desire farther satisfaction Why Spaine remaines so true to the bondage of Rome whilst other Nations are in labour with divisions it may be said That besides the Inquisition her naturall pride and affected gravity renders her proofe against Innovation especially in order to a Profession lesse splendid then her owne being like the Jewes more delighted with well drest Ceremonies then naked Truth Neither have they any generall propensity to the study of Controversies or the writing of any thing besides Romances to which the Roman Religion best sutes being replenished with the high Rhodomontadoes of Saints and miraculous Stories A Monarchy both in Church and State is most sutable to the English Clergy whose maintenance being raised out of the sweat of the Labourer can find none so ready the Pope excluded as Princes to protect them Commonwealths making no such roome for flattery as Kings to whom those Churchmen are dearest and readiest to be preferred by them as having the faculty to discover Virtues where none are and hide Vices where they most abound to which qualities James and Charles were the indulgentest Princes since the Reformation For Queene Elizabeth standing faire in her Subjects opinions was bold to make exchanges with them to their disadvantage The cause the sweetnesse of her Raigne is no more legible This proves it madnesse to expect a pure Reformation under Kings the Roman Religion being in all policy most necessary for them because they have his Holinesse ready at any time as an honourable Vmpire friendly to cement them together by fair means or in case they will not agree to excommunicate the contumacious party No small advantages to Kings who participating of the same vindictive humours with other private mortals fall upon most destructive wars onely to revenge personall affronts As the last quarrell we had with Spaine rose from no more serious a bottome then a misprision the Duke of Buckingham stumbled upon in his lust And the same Kings Expedition to the Isle of Reez had as noisome a source which are things below a Senate not apt to run a madding like unadvised Princes who are distempered upon the least bite of a passion Adde to what hath beene said the vast summes correspondent to the charge of a Court and wanton affections incident to Kings James of England having throwne away upon Dunbarre Carlisle Sommerset and Buckingham only according to computation two millions and you cannot but conclude a Free State the thriftiest Government for the people about whom no such summes can be found but under the hazard of a present or future question Besides consider the excessive expence the Nation would be
This makes me believe you would have as much reason to bewaile an absolute victory as they a totall losse For in that case if the Nation should escape the tyranny of Strangers it were impossible to avoid falling into a greater of her own It being the custome of all Princes to proportion the weight of the peoples fetters to their owne feares Now how the Cavaliers can be free when the Roundheads are slaves is not to be found in the small volumne of my Politicks Though the High Presbyterian so suddenly swel'd with the hope he had swallowed of Soveraignty that he brake in the opiniō of the people before he was able to set up for himself by indeavouring to lay to every single Parish a power judg'd too unweldy for a Dioces Yet I thought not to have taken him so soon in the habit of a Malignant which suits better with his passion then the gravity piety he pretends to or discretion which cannot but dictate to him that he hath sinned past forgivenesse by reducing the Crown to the last extremity And compelling the Army by an unparalleld ingratitude to actions more sutable to his own then the chiefe Commanders former deportment in which if they lean'd too much on worldly policy it was to avoid falling into that visible pit the heads of this party had contrived for them What religious observers of the Covenant they have been what enemies to the known faults of the Bishops they with so much spleen exploded may appeare by the multitudes of preferments and bunch of Steeples the have hung to their purse-strings Besides their ungratefull desertion of that Army who when they durst not trust their own side for feare of being betrayed expunged by their faithfull valour that sentence of death which those they seem to adhere to now had writ upon every wall against them Is it not a sad thing to see Conscience like a cloake-bag stuft with all carriages be they foule or faire Were not the Papists truer friends to their Countries peace who upon a change in Religion and more to their generall disadvantage then this can be to any at enmity with Rome swore Allegeance to those of contrary Tenents The truth of which they so far maintained as in the year 88 many appeared with considerable forces in favour of a Protestant Queen against him they stiled the most Catholick King For those they call Levellers so many of their Propositions as may concern the equall administration of Justice and the Liberty of the People ought no doubt to be harkned unto But their Consciences being possibly agitated by subtiler heads then their own the Divell never being in a greater capacity to act mischiefe then when he is transformed into an Angel of light it behooves them to be wary least pretending to a government more exact then humane corruption is capable of they doe not fall into a worse then ever yet was established For if they create a division in the Army they promote the ends of their enemies and shall set up nothing but tyranny and the destruction of themselves and their Party Then since this Nation hath endured so many severall changes in these later years without any considerable diminution of her splendor and felicity I heartily pray it may not run a severer fortune hereafter which cannot be better prevented then for all Parties in their severall relations quietly to submit to this present Government Which having the only power of Protection cannot in justice be denied the duty of Obedience To perswade which the more easily I most humbly beg of those in Authority To concede to the just desires and Tears of the Nation FINIS A PLEA FOR THE PRESENT GOVERNMENT COMPARED WITH MONARCHY NOTHING makes me more sensible of the wrath of God for sinne then the consideration That want and oppression are become the ill consequents of that primitive Blessing Increase and multiply from whence the Devill taking advantage on our naturall selfe-love raiseth up Covetousnesse the parent of Propriety out of whose bosome result all humane calamities Amongst which this is one of the most severe That it renders us uncapable to be governed without Lawes being too partiall to judge uprightly betweene our owne interest and our neighbours so as where Right is absent Power steps in and supplyes her place This at first necessitated Jurisdiction And the example of one God might present a pattern for Monarchy But Kings did so farre deviate from this precedent that they quite forgot their Election was to encrease the felicity and ease of their Subjects not their owne Which hath caused people in all ages to have recourse to Armes whereby sometimes they impaired seldome mended their Condition Because out of pride ignorance or a superstitious reverence to custome they refused to entrust more then one with their Obedience And we have cause to believe that the exorbitant power and scandalous adoration given to Princes in which like Promotheus they robbe God of his Divinity bestowing the Attributes of Sacred Worship and Majesty upon a sinfull Man grew at the beginning out of the bitter root of Idolatry This dignity being at first found among the Heathen and never taken into one Family by the people of God till in likelyhood the goodnesse of David had allured them and the wisedome of Salomon insnared them into an absolute tyranny under the House of Jesse Which they saw so much cause to repent of as ten Tribes cast it off by a Defection made legitimate by God himselfe And what frequent changes followed appeares in Sacred Story set downe no doubt not onely for the instruction of Kings but as a direction for Subjects what to doe in such cases of oppression Like causes being liable to the like effects Greece and Rome from whom the grounds of Learning are deduced did suffer their wanton Poets to endow their Princes with the powers and names of their Gods and their Gods with the vices of their Kings as Adulteries Rapes Oppressions Thefts c. not sparing Jupiter himselfe whom they chalenge to have wrested the Celestiall Monarchy from his Father Saturne in which is morallized the unnaturalnesse of Ambition breaking through all Relations though never so sacred But as the Idols of the Heathen cannot be distinguished from ordinary stones unlesse by the worship given them by those who yet upon higher illuminations doe breake or cast them away So though Princes such Monsters in power are able to dazle the weake eyes of ignorant men by the false rages of Divinity the flattering Clergy flash in the faces of such as oppose them Yet it is no lesse then miraculous that wise men should be so enamoured on the workes of their owne hands as to place such so near God and to pronounce them unaccountable for personall faults much lesse for those of so epidemicall a nature that they concern the welfare of all forgetting that flesh and bloud is of so wild a condition that nothing can restraine it
but the fearfull apparition of some visible punishment And that other Governments want not the blessings of the best of Monarchies yet stand uncharged with their inconveniences It being possible to be a bad King though a good man in an inferiour Relation The whole masse of History being scarce able to furnish out one in all points accomplished with so many Regall virtues as might compense the damages received from his Predecessour or him that did immediatly succeed Yet dazled with the splendor of a Title whose foule originall continuance hath razed out of the memories of the most The ignorant multitude doe without any scrutiny after worth or conveniency thinke themselves obliged to submit to the untry'd discretion of the next of the same Line So farre intrusted in England before the Conquest that the decision of all controversies lay incumbent in the person of the King onely till corruption and oppression had given cause to mould Reason into a more certaine Law which no respect to their Subjects good but onely their owne trouble or visible constraint was able to tempt them to Yet the people were so simple that upon the least concession of ease they buried the benefit which might have resulted from their expence of bloud and treasure in the same Government if not in the same person they had opposed who was made the more cunning not the better by any thing had pass'd it being the businesse of all politique Princes to rebate the edge of the Lawes towards themselves for whose moderation they were chiefly intended and to render them mortall to the people who in case they were too weake to make good the justest quarrell against their King perished as Traitors when the true treason was perpetrated by their Prince and his evill Counsellours who are ordinarily the first causers of commotions by their cruelty and oppressions Now the indiscretion of our Ancestors hath beene such tempted to it by the miseries incident to Civill Warre as they gave concession to all the Lawes reason or experience could present were likely to strengthen the security of the King in fact So as the justest opposition in the Subject lay under no slighter penalty then the losse of Honour goods lands and life Forgetting That the stronger Fortification was raised before the gates of Kings the more difficult they rendred all accesse to Liberty when ever they were invaded by Tyranny or the peoples conveniency should call for another Government lesse ranting and expensive And I may be confident this could not have been effected with such ease but upon a presumption That the power of Parliaments was thought subordinate to any Law Experience being barren of occasion to make demonstration where the Legislative power should reside in case of a rupture between the King and both or either House never till now in dispute though tacitly implied in the cases of such as t is known they have deposed which questionlesse was done without the Royall assent Therefore not being determinated in expresse words it might be thought impossible a Court so paramount should lye included under generall Rules esteemed in all grants unable to prejudice the Crown and therefore with better Reason unbinding to the Parliament often known not only to dispose of that but the heads that wore it So farre as to determine some unable some unworthy to governe And if any should endeavour to set bounds to the power of this High Court it was as vaine an attempt as to limit the Nation to such an extent of felicity which could no longer hold in nature or Reason then those that did it were able by love or force to master her strength which wisdome would perswade her to resume upon the first approach of advantage Besides the King owning himselfe but a third Estate as you may find in one of his well-pen'd Declarations he could not by his absence remove power so farre from the other but that it did vertually remain in some hands for the good of the People esteemed the supreme Law supposed in all probability to be more cordially intended by the other by reason they were inseparable companions with the people in any good or evill redounded to them from the Law Then by the Prince whose Interest was single and so farre remote from epidemicall ends that he might by incroachment improve his condition to a selfe-advantage raising a particular gaine at the cost of the Publique not probably to be intended by the Nobility unlesse their reason were quite lost in their dependance on the Crown but impossible to be projected by the Commons who after dissolution and their power returned to those that gave it all markes of distinction cease and they are mingled with the rest of the people being equall sharers in what losse or advantage the Representative in which they did reside produced to the Commonwealth Wherefore if a Parliament falls in pieces as this hath done so much Legall power cannot remaine in both the other as in the House of Commons The fairest most naturall and least partiall Representative of the whole Nation whose true and unquestioned proxcies they are The Lords residing by birth as the Bishops in these latter times by favour And both found by experience rather to intend their owne ends then the publique And for such as maintaine That we owed the liberty of electing Parliaments to the benevolence of our Kings May as well say we were indebted to them for our being or nature which abhorres to hold felicity and what is assigned for supportation at the will of another a servitude impossible to be imposed upon a major part that are Masters of right reason Now for the King I should not have looked for him among the three Estates much lesse have owned him for one of them had he not pleased to name himselfe so and by this confession made empty the formerly unquestion'd seat of the Church By which he rather did weaken then support the unnaturall and destructive pretence he made to a Negative voyce For where there is a Parity in an unseparable union it is impossible to find room for so much difference in power as that the most single and suspected part in regard of an experimented selfe-interest should determine of the fitnesse or inconveniency of what the other should present without giving a stronger Reason then his own Will never known but upon constraint or for want of money to contradict it self for the peoples good And though in cases of equall correspondency there might seeme some colour of Justice yet here there cannot Because the King professeth his Person so farre out of the point-blank of Law as that he is responsible to none but God for the worst not onely that he can doe himselfe but suffer to be done by his Instruments Therefore since no tie can be made strong enough to restraine him from breaking in to his Subjects most sacred immunities this power must needs be too extravagant to mingle with theirs lesse interessed who
sometimes united by the malice of his Holines Though armed with no more naturall weapons then what her mony puts into the hands of strangers the most unhappy Militia a State can imploy Yet because all her Senatours look one way and not a squint upon Forreign Interests as the Privadoes of our Kings have beene knowne to doe in relation to their respective Pensions Unity improves their small force to so much advantage as they have for these latter yeares not onely disputed the dominion of the Seas with the Grand Seigniour but forced him to wash away with his peoples bloud divers markes of advantage his multitudes of Souldiers had purchased him in the Levant So as if Monarchs were owners of so much Christianity as to spend but the tith of what is consum'd yearly in Masques and such unnecessary vanities this way a thing not to be hoped for till our good God have discovered to all Nations the curse of monopolized authority this enemy to Christ might be easily reduced Since all the force he can make returnes him from this single State nothing but dishonour and losse whereas the greatest German Caesar was never yet able to beare the least branch of his power without imploring and receiving aide from most of Christian Princes who are now so weltered in their own blood as they omit the opportunity Thinking themselves more charitably imployed in the ruine of their own people or Neighbours A Lunacy could never befall them were they not agitated by such ridiculous humours as Common-wealths disdaine to be affected withall where there is no roome for any disputation about such triviall things as crabbid Titles Legitimacy c. all being ejected there as spurious that conduce not to honour or safety And what advantage this State hath in the wise Conduct of affaires may be easily discerned by any eye that shall passe over the Transactions of this Senate and Paul the fift during the Interdict and compare them with the Treaties of our King James with Spaine the first redounding no lesse to the honour of that Republique then the latter to the shame and losse of this Nation Neither are these advantages peculiar to Venice onely but to all found under this Government which officiating in the double capacities of a King and a Councell both cannot choose but be wiser then the first and lesse subject to corruption then the latter it being as unnaturall for them to betray their owne power as it is usuall with the greatest Courtiers to sell the revelation of their Masters most secret Counsels Though Offenders under Free States are punished with the greatest severity it is with the least injustice and partiality Single persons being more subject to be agitated by the tempests of Fury Prejudice or Revenge then Popular Tribunals which in all reason are not capable of so totall a distemper as to utter such intoxicated Censures as ordinarily drop from single judgements who rather then confesse a mistake will with the Tyrant in Seneca make three guilty because they find one innocent Neither doth Covetousnesse the root of all evill prosper so well or spread so much in the hearts of Senaters as in those of Kings lest their Posterity should be forced to disgorge what they had devoured Too vast estates being so formidable to this Government as they cannot be pass'd by without observation and jealousie by such as know the cause of the reduction of the State of Florence under the House of Medici But Kings are such bottomlesse pits that they proclaime themselves responsible to none but God for all their rapines and injustice By which they doe not onely adjourne all reparation to the day of Doome but leave their oppressions for lawfull inheritances to their successours As the Monopoly Queene Elizabeth granted upon Glasses was improved since to very Raggs and Marrow-bones All a Senate can justly be charged with by way of disadvantage after perfectly founded is division which if pure from popular ambition may possibly occasion more good then hurt by keeping them upright One Faction remaining as a guard upon the rest Their owne safety perswading all Corporations to intend the generall welfare in which Reason gives the right hand of advantage to the Government by a Senate rather then that of a King whose best designes are retarded if not buried with his person whereas this Jurisdiction is never sick much lesse subject to drink or death but reacheth through a continuall suppliment to as immense an eternity as Providence hath afforded any humane Society not being apt to be scared out of the paths leading to their advantage consisting of too great a number to be subject to any clandestine attempt or abused by evill Counsels or corrupted by rewards whereas experience teacheth that Kings may be forced through feare or allured by flattery to resigne their reason and concede things not onely contrary to their peoples but their owne interest as appeared by that celebrated Prince Henry the Fourth of France who was not ashamed to confesse he durst not for feare of his owne life but revoke the just Ban he and all the Parliaments of France had pronounced against the bloudy Jesuits whose expulsion the Venetians make good against all their machinations threats of the Pope and mediation of Princes From whence I may observe That though experience proves by this State and the Catholique Cantons c. that the Roman profession may sute in some measure with all kinds of Government yet undeniable Reason of State renders Monarchy most acceptable to the Pope as it doth the Reformation to Free States who are too wise to admit willingly a Forraigne interest into the Common-wealth by a multiplicity of Ecclesiasticks independent on any other power but that of Rome which Kings being but single persons dare not resist for feare of the Knife it being besides a maine disadvantage in worldly policy to professe a Religion so odious to their neighbours that they are looked upon under no better notion then Heretickes and so no faith to be kept with them nor marriage contracted but by an especiall Indulgence from his Holinesse which Republickes have no use of And being already under the ill opinion of the Roman Church doe but desire a faire opportunity to free themselves from it and make booty of the Religious Houses long since looked upon by them as dens of Traiters and idle persons Therefore such as desire a through Reformation displease their ends by abetting Monarchy Kings being knowne not onely to have beene the Begetters and Nources but the onely Maintainers of Antichrist if the POPE be the man And if any in opposition to this truth object Queene Elizabeth her Brother Edward's Youth and short raigne rendring his inclinations abortive to the benefit of the Nation I answer whosoever considers how resolutely the Pope denied to reverse her Illegitimation refusing to give a decent reception to her Embassadours And with what affection the Parliament out of pure zeale hatred to the