elective and it behoves not a wise nation to committ the summ of thir welbeing the whole state of thir safetie to fortune What need they and how absurd would it be when as they themselves to whom his chief vertue will be but to hearken may with much better management and dispatch with much more commendation of thir own worth and magnanimitie govern without a maister Can the folly be paralleld to adore and be the slaves of a single person for doing that which it is ten thousand to one whether he can or will do and we without him might do more easily more effectually more laudably our selves Shall we never grow old anough to be wise to make seasonable use of gravest autorities experiences examples Is it such an unspeakable joy to serve such felicitie to wear a yoke to clink our shackles lockt on by pretended law of subjection more intolerable and hopeless to be ever shaken off then those which are knockt on by illegal injurie and violence Aristotle our chief instructer in the Universities least this doctrine be thought Sectarian as the royalist would have it thought tels us in the third of his Politics that certain men at first for the matchless excellence of thir vertue above others or som great public benifit were created kings by the people in small cities and territories and in the scarcitie of others to be found like them but when they abus'd thir power and governments grew larger and the number of prudent men increasd that then the people soon deposing thir tyrants betook them in all civilest places to the form of a free Commonwealth And why should we thus disparage and prejudicate our own nation as to fear a scarcitie of able and worthie men united in counsel to govern us if we will but use diligence and impartiality to finde them out and chuse them rather yoking our selves to a single person the natural adversarie and oppressor of libertie though good yet far easier corruptible by the excess of his singular power and exaltation or at best not comparably sufficient to bear the weight of government nor equally dispos'd to make us happie in the enjoyment of our libertie under him But admitt that monarchie of it self may be convenient to som nations yet to us who have thrown it out receivd back again it cannot but prove pernicious For kings to com never forgetting thir former ejection will be sure to fortifie and arm themselves sufficiently for the future against all such attempts hereafter from the people who shall be then so narrowly watchd and kep so low that though they would never so fain and at the same rate of thir blood and treasure they never shall be able to regain what they now have purchasd and may enjoy or to free themselves from any yoke impos'd upon them nor will they dare to go about it utterly disheartn'd for the future if these thir highest attempts prove unsuccesfull which will be the triumph of all tyrants heerafter over any people that shall resist oppression and thir song will then be to others how sped the rebellious English to our posteritie how sped the rebells your fathers This is not my conjecture but drawn from God's known denouncement against the gentilizing Israelites who though they were governd in a Commouwealth of God's own ordaining he only thir king they his peculiar people yet affecting rather to resemble heathen but pretending the misgovernment of Samuel's sons no more a reason to dislike thir Common-wealth then the violence of Eli's sons was imputable to that priesthood or religion clamourd for a king They had thir longing but with this testimonie of God's wrath ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen and the Lord will not hear you in that day Us if he shall hear now how much less will he hear when we cry heerafter who once deliverd by him from a king and not without wondrous acts of his providence insensible and unworthie of those high mâ—…ies are returning precipitantly if he withold us not back to the captivitie from whence he freed us Yet neither shall we obtain or buy at an easie rate this new guilded yoke which thus transports us a new royal-revenue must be found a new episcopal for those are individual both which being wholy dissipated or bought by privat persons or assign'd for service don and especially to the Armie cannot be recoverd without a general detriment and confusion to mens estates or a heavie imposition on all mens purses benifit to none but to the worst and ignoblest sort of men whose hope is to be either the ministers of court riot and excess or the gainers by it But not to speak more of losses and extraordinarie levies on our estates what will then be the revenges and offences rememberd and returnd not only by the chief person but by all his adherents accounts and reparations that will be requir'd suites incitements inquities discoveries complaints informations who knows against whom or how many though perhaps neuters if not to utmost infliction yet to imprisonment fines banishment or molestation if not these yet disfavor discountnance disregard and contempt on all but the known royalist or whom he favors will be plenteous nor let the new royaliz'd presbyterians perswade themselves that thir old doings though now recanted will be forgotten what ever conditions be contriv'd or trusted on Will they not beleeve this nor remember the pacification how it was kept to the Scots how other solemn promises many a time to us Let them but now read the diabolical fore-running libells the faces the gestures that now appeer foremost and briskest in all public places as the harbingers of those that are in expectation to raign over us let them but hear the insolencies the menaces the insultings of our newly animated common enemies crept lately out of thir holes thir hell I might say by the language of thir infernal pamphlets the spue of every drunkard every ribald nameless yet not for want of licence but for very shame of thir own vile persons not daring to name themselves while they traduce others by name and give us to foresee that they intend to second thir wicked words if ever they have power with more wicked deeds Let our zealous backsliders forethink now with themselves show thir necks yok'd with these tigers of Bacchus these new fanatics of not the preaching but the sweating-tub inspir'd with nothing holier then the Venereal pox can draw one way under monarchie to the establishing of church discipline with these new-disgorg'd atheismes yet shall they not have the honor to yoke with these but shall be yok'd under them these shall plow on their backs And do they among them who are so forward to bring in the single person think to be by him trusted or long regarded So trusted they shall be and so regarded as by kings are wont reconcil'd enemies neglected and soon after discarded if not prosecuted
The readie and easie way to establish a free Commonwealth and the excellence therof com par'd with the inconveniencies and dangers of readmitting Kingship in this Nation The second edition revis'd and augmented The author J. M. et nos consilium dedimus Syl'ae demus populo nunc LONDON Printed for the Author 1660. The readie and easie way to establish a free Commonwealth ALthough since the writing of this treatise the face of things hath had som change writs for new elections have bin recall'd and the members at first chosen re-admitted from exclusion yet not a little rejoicing to hear declar'd the resolution of those who are in power tending to the establishment of a free Commonwealth and to remove if it be possible this noxious humor of returning to bondage instilld of late by som deceivers and nourishd from bad principles and fals apprehensions among too many of the people I thought best not to suppress what I had written hoping that it may now be of much more use and concernment to be freely publishd in the midst of our Elections to a free Parlament or their sitting to consider freely of the Government whom it behoves to have all things represented to them that may direct thir judgment therin and I never read of any State scarce of any tyrant grown so incurable as to refuse counsel from any in a time of public deliberation much less to be offended If thir absolute determination be to enthrall us before so long a Lent of Servitude they may permitt us a little Shroving-time first wherin to speak freely and take our leaves of Libertie And because in the former edition through haste many faults escap'd and many books were suddenly dispersd ere the note to mend them could be sent I took the opportunitie from this occasion to revise and somwhat to enlarge the whole discourse especially that part which argues for a perpetual Senat. The treatise thus revis'd and enlarg'd is as follows The Parliament of England assisted by a great number of the people who appeerd and stuck to them faithfullest in defence of religion and thir civil liberties judging kingship by long experience a government unnecessarie burdensom and dangerous justly and magnanimously abolishd it turning regal bondage into a free Commonwealth to the admiration and terrour of our emulous neighbours They took themselves not bound by the light of nature or religion to any former covnant from which the King himself by many forfeitures of a latter date or discoverie and our own longer consideration theron had more more unbound us both to himself and his posteritie as hath bin ever the justice and the prudence of all wise nations that have ejected tyrannie They covnanted to preserve the Kings person and autoritie in the preservation of the true religion and our liberties not in his endeavoring to bring in upon our consciences a Popish religion upon our liberties thraldom upon our lives destruction by his occasioning if not complotting as was after discoverd the Irish massacre his fomenting and arming the rebellion his covert leaguing with the rebels against us his refusing more then seaven times propositions most just and necessarie to the true religion and our liberties tenderd him by the Parlament both of England and Scotland They made not thir covnant concerning him with no difference between a king and a god or promisd him as Job did to the Almightie to trust in him though he slay us they understood that the solemn ingagement wherin we all forswore kingship was no more a breach of the covant then the covnant was of the protestation before but a faithful and prudent going on both in the words well weighd and in the true sense of the covnant without respect of persons when we could not serve two contrary maisters God and the king or the king and that more supreme law sworn in the first place to maintain our safetie and our libertie They knew the people of England to be a free people themselves the representers of that freedom although many were excluded as many fled so they pretended from tumults to Oxford yet they were left a sufficient number to act in Parlament therefor not bound by any statute of preceding Parlaments but by the law of nature only which is the only law of laws truly and properly to all mankinde fundamental the beginning and the end of all Government to which no Parlament or people that will throughly reforme but may and must have recourse as they had and must yet have in church reformation if they throughly intend it to evangelic rules not to ecclesiastical canons though never so ancient so ratifi'd and establishd in the land by Statutes which for the most part are meer positive laws neither natural nor moral so by any Parlament for just and serious considerations without scruple to be at any time repeal'd If others of thir number in these things were under force they were not but under free conscience if others were excluded by a power which they could not resist they were not therefore to leave the helm of government in no hands to discontinue thir care of the public peace and safetie to desert the people in anarchie and confusion no more then when so many of thir members left them as made up in outward formalitie a more legal Parlament of three estates against them The best affected also and best principl'd of the people stood not numbring or computing on which side were most voices in Parlament but on which side appeerd to them most reason most safetie when the house divided upon main matters what was well motiond and advis'd they examind not whether fear or perswasion carried it in the vote neither did they measure votes and counsels by the intentions of them that voted knowing that intentions either are but guessd at or not soon anough known and although good can neither make the deed such nor prevent the consequence from being bad suppose bad intentions in things otherwise welldon what was welldon was by them who so thought not the less obey'd or followd in the state since in the church who had not rather follow Iscariot or Simon the magician though to covetous ends preaching then Saul though in the uprightness of his heart persecuting the gospell Safer they therefor judgd what they thought the better counsels though carried on by some perhaps to bad ends then the wors by others though endevord with best intentions and yet they were not to learn that a greater number might be corrupt within the walls of a Parlament as well as of a citie wherof in matters of neerest concernment all men will be judges nor easily permitt that the odds of voices in thir greatest councel shall more endanger them by corrupt or credulous votes then the odds of enemies by open assaults judging that most voices ought not alwaies to prevail where main matters are in question if others hence will pretend to disturb all counsels
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