bear part in the government make thir own judicial laws or use these that are and execute them by thir own elected judicatures and judges without appeal in all things of civil government between man and man so they shall have justice in thir own hands law executed fully and finally in thir own counties and precincts long wishd and spoken of but never yet obtaind they shall have none then to blame but themselves if it be not well administerd and fewer laws to expect or fear from the supreme autoritie or to those that shall be made of any great concernment to public libertie they may without much trouble in these commonalties or in more general assemblies call'd to thir cities from the whole territorie on such occasion declare and publish thir assent or dissent by deputies within a time limited sent to the Grand Councel yet so as this thir judgment declar'd shal submitt to the greater number of other counties or commonalties and not avail them to any exemption of themselves or refusal of agreement with the rest as it may in any of the United Provinces being sovran within it self oft times to the great disadvantage of that union In these imploiments they may much better then they do now exercise and fit themselves till thir lot fall to be chosen into the Grand Councel according as thir worth and merit shall be taken notice of by the people As for controversies that shall happen between men of several counties they may repair as they do now to the capital citie or any other more commodious indifferent place and equal judges And this I finde to have bin practisd in the old Athenian Commonwealth reputed the first and ancientest place of civilitie in all Greece that they had in thir several cities a peculiar in Athens a common government and thir right as it befell them to the administration of both They should have heer also schools and academies at thir own choice wherin thir children may be bred up in thir own sight to all learning and noble education not in grammar only but in all liberal ars and exercises This would soon spread much more knowledge and civilitie yea religion through all parts of the land by communicating the natural heat of government and culture more distributively to all extreme parts which now lie numm and neglected would soon make the whole nation more industrious more ingenuous at home more potent more honorable abroad To this a free Commonwealth will easily assent nay the Parlament hath had alreadie som such thing in designe for of all governments 〈◊〉 Commonwealth aims most to make the people flourishing vertuous noble and high spirited Monarchs will never permitt whose aim is to make the people wealthie indeed perhaps and well fleec't for thir own sheâ—ing and the supplie of regal prodigalitie but otherwise softest basest vitiousest servilest easiest to be kept under and not only in fleece â—ut in minde also sheepishest and will have all the benches of judicature annexd to the throne as a gift of royal grace that we have justice don us when as nothing can be more essential to the freedom of a people then to have the administration of justice and all public ornaments in thir own election and within thir own bounds without long travelling or depending on remote places to obtain thir right or any civil accomplishment so it be not supreme but subordinate to the general power and union of the whole Republic In which happy firmness as in the particular above mentiond we shall also far exceâ—… the United Provinces by having not as they to the retarding and distracting oft times of thir counsels or urgentest occasions many Sovranties united in one Commonwealth but many Commonwealths under one united and entrusted Sovrantie And when we have our forces by sea and land either of a faithful Armie or a setl'd Militia in our own hands to the firm establishing of a free Commonwealth publick accounts under our own inspection general laws and taxes with thir causes in our own domestic suffrages judicial laws offices and ornaments at home in our own ordering and administration all distinction of lords and commoners that may any way divide or sever the publick interest remov'd what can a perpetual senat have then wherin to grow corrupt wherin to encroach upon us or usurp or if they do wherin to be formidable Yet if all this avail not to remove the fear or envie of a perpetual sitting it may be easilie provided to change a third part of them yearly or every two or three years as was above mentiond or that it be at those times in the peoples choice whether they will change them or renew thir power as they shall finde cause I have no more to say at present few words will save us well considerd few and easie things now seasonably don But if the people be so affected as to prostitute religion and libertie to the vain and groundless apprehension that nothing but kingship can restore trade not remembring the frequent plagues and pestilences that then wasted this citie such as through God's mercie we never have felt since and that trade flourishes no where more then in the free Commonwealths of Italie Germanie and the Low-Countries before thir eyes at this day yet if trade be grown so craving and importunate through the profuse living of tradesmen that nothing can support it but the luxurious expences of a nation upon trifles or superfluities so as if the people generally should betake themselves to frugalitie it might prove a dangerous matter least tradesmen should mutinie for want of trading and that therefor we must forgoe set to sale religion libertie honor safetie all concernments Divine or human to keep up trading if lastly after all this light among us the same reason shall pass for current to put our necks again under kingship as was made use of by the Jews to returne back to Egypt and to the worship of thir idol queen because they falsly imagind that they then livd in more plentie and prosperitie our condition is not sound but rotten both in religion and all civil prudence and will bring us soon the way we are marching to those calamities which attend alwaies and unavoidably on luxurie all national judgments under forein or domestic slaverie so far we shall be from mending our condition by monarchizing our government whatever new conceit now possesses us However with all hazard I have ventur'd what I thought my duty to speak in season and to forewarne my countrey in time wherin I doubt not but ther be many wise men in all places and degrees but am sorrie the effects of wisdom are so little seen among us Many circumstances and particulars I could have added in those things wherof I have spoken but a few main matters now put speedily in execution will suffice to recover us and set all right and ther will want at no time who are good at circumstances but men who set thir mindes on main matters and sufficiently urge them in these most difficult times I finde not many What I have spoken is the language of that which is not call'd amiss the good Old Cause if it seem strange to any it will not seem more strange I hope then convincing to backsliders Thus much I should perhaps have said though I were sure I should have spoken only to trees and stones and had none to cry to but with the Prophet O earth earth earth to tell the very soil it self what her perverse inhabitants are deaf to Nay though what I have spoke should happ'n which Thou suffer not who didst create mankinde free nor Thou next who didst redeem us from being servants of men to be the last words of our expiring libertie But I trust I shall have spoken perswasion to abundance of sensible and ingenuous men to som perhaps whom God may raise of these stones to become children of reviving libertie and may reclaim though they seem now chusing them a captain back for Egypt to bethink themselves a little and consider whether they are rushing to exhort this torrent also of the people not to be so impetuos but to keep thir due channell and at length recovering and uniting thir better resolutions now that they see alreadie how open and unbounded the insolence and rage is of our common enemies to stay these ruinous proceedings justly and timely fearing to what a precipice of destruction the deluge of this epidemic madness would hurrie us through the general defection of a misguided and abus'd multitude The end
it be feard that long continuance of power may corrupt sincerest men the known expedient is and by som lately propounded that annually or if the space be longer so much perhaps the better the third part of Senators may go out according to the precedence of thir election and the like number be chosen in thir places to prevent the setling of too absolute a power if it should be perpetual and this they call partial rotation But I could wish that this wheel or partial wheel in State if it be possible might be avoided as having too much affinitie with the wheel of fortune For it appeers not how this can be don without danger and mischance of putting out a great number of the best and ablest in whose stead new elections may bring in as many raw unexperienc'd and otherwise affected to the weakning and much altering for the wors of public transactions Neither do I think a perpetual Senat especially chosen and entrusted by the people much in this land to be feard where the well-affected either in a standing armie or in a setled militia have thir arms in thir own hands Safest therefor to me it seems and of least hazard or interruption to affairs that none of the Grand Councel be mov'd unless by death or just conviction of som crime for what can be expected firm or stedfast from a floating foundation however I forejudge not any probable expedient any temperament that can be found in things of this nature so disputable on either side Yet least this which I affirme be thought my single opinion I shall add sufficient testimonie Kingship it self is therefor counted the more safe and durable because the king and for the most part his councel is not chang'd during life but a Commonwealth is held immortal and therin firmest safest and most above fortune for the death of a king causeth ofttimes many dangerous alterations but the death now and then of a Senator is not felt the main bodie of them still continuing permanent in greatest and noblest Commonwealths and as it were eternal Therefor among the Jews the supreme councel of seaventie call'd the Sanhedrim founded by Moses in Athens that of Areopagus in Sparta that of the Ancients in Rome the Senat consisted of members chosen for term of life and by that means remaind as it were still the same to generations In Venice they change indeed ofter then every year som particular councels of State as that of six or such other but the true Senat which upholds and sustains the government is the whole aristocracie immovable So in the United Provinces the States General which are indeed but a councel of st te deputed by the whole union are not usually the same persons for above three or six years but the States of every citie in whom the sovrantie hath bin plac'd time out of minde are a standing Senat without succession and accounted chiefly in that regard the main prop of thir liberty And why they should be so in every well orderd Common-wealth they who write of policie give these reasons That to make the Senat successive not only impairs the dignitie and lustre of the Senat but weakens the whole Commonwealth and brings it into manifest danger while by this means the secrets of State are frequently divulgd and matters of greatest consequence committed to inexpert and novice counselors utterly to seek in the full and intimate knowledge of affairs past I know not therefor what should be peculiar in England to make successive Parlaments thought safest or convenient here more then in other nations unless it be the fickl'ness which is attributed to us as we are Ilanders but good education and acquisit wisdom ought to correct the fluxible fault if any such be of our watry situation It will be objected that in those places where they had perpetual Senats they had also popular remedies against thir growing too imperious as in Athens besides Areopagus another Senat of four or five hunderd in Sparta the Ephors in Rome the Tribunes of the people But the event tels us that these remedies either little availd the people or brought them to such a licentious and unbridl'd democratie as in fine ruind themselves with thir own excessive power So that the main reason urg'd why popular assemblies are to be trusted with the peoples libertie rather then a Senat of principal men because great men will be still endeavoring to inlarge thir power but the common sort will be contented to maintain thir own libertie is by experience found false none being more immoderat and ambitious to amplifie thir power then such popularities which was seen in the people of Rome who at first contented to have thir Tribunes at length contended with the Senat that one Consul then both soon after that the Censors and Praetors also should be created Plebeian and the whole empire put into their hands adoring lastly those who most were advers to the Senat till Marius by fulfilling thir inordinat desires quite lost them all the power for which they had so long bin striving and left them under the tyrannie of Sylla the ballance therefor must be exactly so set as to preserve and keep up due autoritie on either side as well in the Senat as in the people And this annual rotation of a Senat to consist of three hunderd as is lately propounded requires also another popular assembly upward of a thousand with an answerable rotation Which besides that it will be liable to all those inconveniencies found in the foresaid remedies cannot but be troublesom and chargeable both in thir motion and thir session to the whole land unweildie with thir own bulk unable in so great a number to mature thir consultations as they ought if any be allotted them and that they meet not from so many parts remote to sit a whole year lieger in one place only now and then to hold up a forrest of fingers or to convey each man his bean or ballot into the box without reason shewn or common deliberation incontinent of secrets if any be imparted to them emulous and always jarring with the other Senat. The much better way doubtless will be in this wavering condition of our affairs to deferr the changing or circumscribing of our Senat more then may be done with ease till the Commonwealth be throughly setl'd in peace and safetie and they themselves give us the occasion Militarie men hold it dangerous to change the form of battel in view of an enemie neither did the people of Rome bandie with thir Senat while any of the Tarquins livd the enemies of thir libertie nor sought by creating Tribunes to defend themselves against the fear of thir Patricians till sixteen years after the expulsion of thir kings and in full securitie of thir state they had or thought they had just cause given them by the Senat. Another way will be to welqualifie and refine elections not committing all to the noise and shouting of
for old traytors the first inciters beginners and more then to the third part actors of all that followd it will be found also that there must be then as necessarily as now for the contrarie part will be still feard a standing armie which for certain shall not be this but of the fiercest Cavaliers of no less expence and perhaps again under Rupert but let this armie be sure they shall be soon disbanded and likeliest without aâ—rear or pay and being disbanded not be sure but they may as soon be questiond for being in arms against thir king the same let them fear who have contributed monie which will amount to no small number that must then take thir turn to be made delinquents and compounders They who past reason and recoverie are devoted to kingship perhaps will answer that a greater part by far of the Nation will have it so the rest therefor must yield Not so much to convince these which I little hope as to confirm them who yield not I reply that this greatest part have both in reason and the trial of just battel lost the right of their election what the government shall be of them who have not lost that right whether they for kingship be the greater number who can certainly determin Suppose they be yet of freedom they partake all alike one main end of government which if the greater part value not but will degeneratly forgoe is it just or reasonable that most voices against the the main end of government should enslave the less number that would be free More just it is doubtless if it com to force that a less number compell a greater to retain which can be no wrong to them thir libertie then that a greater number for the pleasure of thir baseness compell a less most injuriously to be thir fellow slaves They who seek nothing but thir own just libertie have alwaies right to winn it and to keep it when ever they have power be the voices never so numerous that oppose it And how much we above others are concernd to defend it from kingship and from them who in pursuance therof so perniciously would betray us and themselves to most certain miserie and thraldom will be needless to repeat Having thus far shewn with what ease we may now obtain a free Commonwealth and by it with as much ease all the freedom peace justice plentie that we can desire on the other side the difficulties troubles uncertainties nay rather impossibilities to enjoy these things constantly under a monarch I will now proceed to shew more particularly wherin our freedom and flourishing condition will be more ample and secure to us under a free Commonwealth then under kingship The whole freedom of man consists either in spiritual or civil libertie As for spiritual who can be at rest who can enjoy any thing in this world with contentment who hath not libertie to serve God and to save his own soul according to the best light which God hath planted in him to that purpose by the reading of his reveal'd will and the guidance of his holy spirit That this is best pleasing to God and that the whole Protestant Church allows no supream judge or rule in matters of religion but the scriptures and these to be interpreted by the the scriptures themselves which necessarily inferrs liberty of conscience I have heretofore prov'd at large in another treatise and might yet furder by the public declarations confessions and admonitions of whole churches and states obvious in all historie since the Reformation This liberty of conscience which above all other things ought to be to all men dearest and most precious no government more inclinable not to favor only but to protect then a free Common-wealth as being most magnanimous most fearless and confident of its own fair proceedings Wheras kingship though looking big yet indeed most pusillanimous full of fears full of jealousies startl'd at every ombrage as it hath bin observd of old to have ever suspected most and mistrusted them who were in most esteem for vertue and generositie of minde so it is now known to have most in doubt and suspicion them who are most reputed to be religious Queen Elizabeth though her self accounted so good a Protestant so moderate so confident of her Subjects love would never give way so much as to Presbyterian rereformation in this land though once and again besought as Camden relates but imprisond and persecuted the very proposers therof alleaging it as her minde maxim unalterable that such reformation would diminish regal autoritie What liberty of conscience can we then expect of others far wors principl'd from the cradle traind up and governd by Popish and Spanish counsels and on such depending hitherto for subsistence Especially what can this last Parlament expect who having reviv'd lately and publishd the covnant have reingag'd themselves never to readmitt Episcopacie which no son of Charls returning but will most certainly bring back with him if he regard the last and strictest charge of his father to persevere in not the doctrin only but government of the church of England not to neglect the speedie and effectual suppressing of errors and schisms among which he accounted Presbyterie one of the chief or if notwithstanding that charge of his father he submitt to the covnant how will he keep faith to us with disobedience to him or regard that faith given which must be founded on the breach of that last and solemnest paternal charge and the reluctance I may say the antipathie which is in all kings against Presbyterian and Independent discipline for they hear the gospel speaking much of libertie a word which monarchie and her bishops both fear and hate but a free Commonwealth both favors and promotes and not the word only but the thing it self But let our governors beware in time least thir hard measure to libertie of conscience be found the rock wheron they ship wrack themselves as others have now don before them in the cours wherin God was directing thir stearage to a free Commonwealth and the abandoning of all those whom they call sectaries for the detected falshood and ambition of som be a wilfull rejection of thir own chief strength and interest in the freedom of all Protestant religion under what abusive name soever calumniated The other part of our freedom consists in the civil rights and advancements of every person according to his merit the enjoyment of those never more certain and the access to these never more open then in a free Commonwealth Both which in my opinion may be best and soonest obtaind if every countie in the land were made a kinde of subordinate Commonaltie or Common-wealth and one chief town or more according as the shire is in circuit made cities if they be not so call'd alreadie where the nobilitie and chief gentry from a proportionable compas of territorie annexd to each citie may build houses or palaces befitting thir qualitie may