many Princes were so scornful and so unreasonable as to make good advice ridiculous This was worthy of so great a man's taking notice of for nothing makes serious men sooner desert a Prince's interest than to be under a slighted character for Cicero in his Offices observes many men will lose their lives for a Prince who will not lose their reputations I once heard these Buffoons that thus pleased a Prince called by a serious Gentleman the Petards of a Court for said he by representing any man in a disguise or masquerade they will blow up his credit presently If a Prince have a known bias he will too soon be observed and a common understanding at Court will make that appear wisdom which really is but flattery for there is scarce any one maxim in Policy which is not combated by some other therefore they that study their own preferment or security not their Princes establishment or honor will soon find that the weaker reason that gratifies the stronger passion of a Prince is ever acceptable and rewarded whilst the stronger reason is mis-interpreted as a disaffection Princes therefore must discountenance no man's advice for a wife Prince like a good Huntsman must encourage the dog that hunts for the sents as well as he that hits it And Counsel that is sincere must be grateful and the Counsellor if he speak in private his Counsel must be kept private for if the Prince expose him unto a contrary faction it will create that caution that he will want freedom of advice when the other wants his security in advising Thus Princes must not call their Counsellors to advise as Xerxes did and then tell them he called them to bring obedient minds not troublesome debates And if a Prince would be well advised he must advise early for there is no comfort to say Sir the time is past or it is too late now to think on it A Prince should have no Councellor to be so mean as to be a reproach unto him nor so lofty as to reproach him for the very errors of a Prince are to be concealed or respectfully laid open before him and to be as much as may be concealed from others My Lord Bacon says a Prince should have but few and those well chosen Counsellors that they may carry on his business with one spirit of direction therefore he observes wise Henry the seventh made use only of Bishop Morton and Bishop Fox Over greatness in one or over strict combination in a few may be both dangerous to him He may keep his ear open unto many but he must not let them run into factions against one another if he hope to be served by any for they will reak their spight against one another at the price of his disservice If both concur not in his business he deceives himself if he thinks he hath use of either If he carry himself with indifference unto their particular concerns he may make use both of their advices and interest unto his own service And any other way of managing factions or keeping them at odds unto my observation was never useful unto any Prince If either of them have a predominancy with him at least so by turns as one checks the other both disserve him The best way of a Prince to know the nature of him he would make a Counsellor of is to know him by domesticks and neighbours and general vogue for from these no man can long conceal himself or his natural inclinations Enemies will traduce him friends over value him but these if what they say flow naturally from themselves best discover him And the Counsellor's nature is as much to be considered as his abilities for though Princes most commonly best esteem of subtil men it is moral good men who best advance their service for a mind not seasoned with morality like the delicatest wines will best please the taste for a time but soon grow prickt or sowre or some trick they will play at last harms more than any of their services do good When piety therefore is joyned unto natural abilities ripeness of age Characters of a Councellor and good experience as early having entred into business then a Prince may expect not only an able but a faithful Councellor If piety be wanting abilities will turn but unto compliances and self-self-ends or serving some faction rather than the Prince for moral virtue is the only restraint upon self-interest Abilities destitute of piety seldom advance a Princes service and he is likeliest best to serve his Prince on earth who serves his God in heaven for piety only can restrain the ill effects of ambition or covetousness or lead a man to prefer his masters service more than any provision for wise or children It is the honour of Cardinal Toledo that he refused to be of the Kings Council without he might declare Gods will in opposition unto the impiety of modern policies Without natural abilities in a Councellor men expect a harvest without having sowed the field or if it were sowed and the seed corn not good viz. sowed with principles Epicurean Machiavilian or Hobbian they will never serve to govern a free peopâ—e they may to render men slaves If Councellors be not grave and aged persons they that are to obey their counsels will not reverence them or cheerfully submit for young men must necessarily want experience and without experience the best abilities will be subject unto gross errors A Statesman or indeed any man in any course of life must be broken unto business rompu aux affaires before any other man can confidently depend on him for he is not to be depended on to guide an affair that hath not seen both sides of fortune or met with disasters as well as good successes or observed them carefully in History When young men give the counsel the matter of it is most commonly violent for their temper leads either unto rash and daring things such as may endanger the settlement of the present state which no wise Prince for increase of jurisdiction or prerogative should ever adventure or unto wit and repartees which are proper for discourses at a table but not for the gravity of a Council-board for commonly they gain their esteem by judgments they make on things past or by reflections on an affair in general not by councils or determinations on somewhat that is present and particular Indeed it is a great mistake to think men of wit with some mixture of Latin and Greek or foreign languages make the properest persons for business A great man both of wit and learning Thucydides determines against it Hebetiores quam viri acutiores melius Rem-publ administrant Young and witty men have too much fancy to examine their own judgments and their warm temper makes them prosecute an affair with eagerness at first and remisness towards the end acribus initiis sed incurioso fine and they are too likely rashly to run into errors and by
which we call religion which should tye as by a law every rational creature to perform the justice of his nature which other creatures observe by instinction man by choice So as a law is but a rule what things the creature should follow and what fly Thus the eternal Wisdom wrote natural laws in the very essence or rationality of man and by this rationality this creature was capacitated to receive from him positive laws When man offends against the natural law his conscience checks him and when he offends against the positive some known revelation or unquestioned tradition or written word of God must be his accuser Hence laws usually are divided into Moral which are those which flow from the law of nature or ceremonial which are those which flow from some positive law of God or judicial which should imitate the justice of Natural laws and were given to some men as unto the Jews by God himself or from the law of Nature and the rationality of man unto all others and are framed by men in order to the exercise of justice among themselves and are made as conformable as may be unto the law natural and eternal and have for their end the common good of that society which is under the authority of the Head or Soveraign of that society So as every such law ought to be honest and possible to be kept every such law containing in it two powers viz. directive in what it prescribes and coactive in punishing offenders against it Justice natural and civil Now justice is but a performance of some act which some law requires And as we said on the former head religion was either natural or instituted so we must say on this it is either natural or civil Indeed natural justice is an essential part of natural religion and so is inbred in man Why natural justice so far exceeds civil and that is the reason natural justice so far exceeds civil or what human laws prescribes For human laws cannot extend their sanction or rewards and punishments unto desires and concupiscences out of which all civil injustices arise and some offences or injustices seem unto Legislators so trivial that there is no law or sanction against them Yet natural justice prohibits even such offences which made the great Naturalist and Statesman Cicero say It was a narrow or a mean thing to be just only as far as civil law required quam angusta est innocentia ad legem bonum esse or quanto latius officiorum patet quam juris regula for humanity and liberality c. are left out of the publick Tables of the Romans Indeed both Tables of the Decalogue are but parts of natural justice so as a man may be a good Citizen Vir bonus est is qui consulta Patrum c. when he is not a good man or when he narrows that justice which he owes to men unto civil sanctions Justice is concerned in making executing obeying laws 1st In making them Justice in making for the Legislator must sincerely be convinced the law is beneficial for the Government and for the Governed for if it serve only personal ends as that the Prince and Governors by it singly reap the advantage and that it conduce not to common good it wants the best character of a law The like it doth if an unruly multitude force a law from him in prejudice of the good constitution and strength of the Government or Royalty Secondly if laws be made unto good ends Executing and not executed they become a snare for usually the breach of a civil law carries with it some profit and advantage and so one man to his loss observes that law which another through his disobedience gains by And non-execution of laws leads men to the neglect of the Government for they think it a foolish thing to be tied by that cord Obeying Laws which others so easily break Thirdly therefore when laws are made subjects must make a conscience to obey them for it is a debt they owe unto their Prince and unto the whole society and to every particular man of it So as a Legislator must make a law no snare a Magistrate must impartially execute it and a Subject conscientiously obey it The law of nature is the rule of all human and civil laws Tully could say Nos legem bonam a malà nullà aliâ ratione nisi Natura norma dividere possumus And Baldus Imbecillitas est humani intellectus in quacunque causa legem quaerere ubi rationem naturalem invenires A law therefore must be suitable to religion agreeable to the natural not humorous disposition of the people and must tend unto publick good And thus civil and judicial laws made by men are manifest proofs of moral laws written by God in man for they ever confirm those laws and conform themselves thereunto and are adapted to civil cases only Laws therefore are made both in defence of the Government and Governors Laws in defence of the Government and Subject as well as of the Governed in their several concerns of life liberty property and good name fame or reputation and the breach of these laws falls under several penalties higher or lower Penalties as the offence is for it is treason and misprision of treason to offend against the Government or Prince and it is excommunication to offend against Ecclesiastical authority and it is murther and felony or a capital punishment to take away a mans life or rob him of his goods and he falls under a pecuniary or corporal punishment that robs a man of his liberty or good name Thus justice whether it be political or private is the defence of the Head and Body in society How laws oblige the Prince and how the Subject and obliges the Prince by the directive part of the law tho' not the coactive for therein he is subject only unto God to be just unto and tender of the subject and by the directive and coactive part of it obligeth the Subject uniformly and impartially to honor aid and obey him in his government Nay a man by it is defended from himself as well as from others for men by excesses and penury are often unjust unto themselves and unto their relations And this restrains a man from using even his own to his own private detriment as well as unto the publicks for the publick has a right both in his person and private possessions and all this ne Respublica capiat aliquid detrimenti This virtue guides men in peace and regulates them in war and frames all sound council It is that in the Politick Body which consent of parts makes in the Natural for it gives amongst the members thereof a fellow-feeling of each others state It makes the foot content to support the body and the body the head and the head to influence by its animal spirits all the members It admonishes the stomach not wilfully to
judgment or punishment on them both on him for violating the natural rights of his subjects Why God often permits subjects to be rebellious and for breach of his obligation or oath unto them that he would govern them by their laws and be careful of them both in their lives and liberties For says Boccalini God made not Princes and Subjects as he did cats and mice one to catch the other and for a time to play with them and then to eat them up for natural civil and divine right teaches the head to consult for the good of the body and the body readily to obey the head In a word tho' oppression makes a wise man mad yet no provocation can warrant a Christian subject to be a rebel Thus far we may say this Question about Government and the nature and end of Soveraignty is examined singly by natural reason or reasoning Next let us enquire after it by the word of God and after that particularly by our own National laws The same things examined by Scripture or Gods word and as expounded by our own Church NO constitution of Government can be so happily framed Soveraignty and Non-resistance proved by Scripture as by its single fabrick to secure the peace of a Nation else surely God's Theocracy among the Jews and paternal Government among the Patriarchs and Kings of Judah would have prevented all complaints When divine as well as prophane History shall be consulted it will be found Policy is like Morality and may be much improved by these two words and precepts Sustinc abstine For the Prince must abstain from violence and rapine and neither for his pleasures nor ambition may he suffer himself to prey on his people And often he must bear with or sustain their perverse or froward humors lest unseasonably stirring them he make a fermentation he cannot quiet And subjects will find that the blessing of Government flows more from their passive obedience than from any over nice care of their liberties for impatience of Subjects has overthrown more States than the Tyranny of Princes as will be toucht on hereafter and most commonly God will not send a people good Governors when they will not fit themselves to bear ill ones It was therefore not only the wisdom but the goodness of God towards Subjects that he made Soveraign Persons only answerable to himself All other ways are as Hosea says setting up of Kings but not by him or his Oeconomy pleases them not and therefore they eat sowre grapes or frame to themselves false principles and their teeth are set on edge or they destroy the peace they hunt after for the Politick body like the Natural that will endure no ail but have recourse to physick will soon purge it self out of the world But nothing of this that is said infers that men should not defend the rights of free born Subjects but that they defend them in their proper place or judicatures of the land and not by the sword But he that gave a law to every species of creatures gave one to mankind which man less exactly observes by reason of the freedom of his will and by reason of his lapst nature But from the law of his nature or from the Moral law the best Judicial law is framed which may be found by observing how this law among Gods own people the Israelites suits with the Moral law given to or for all Mankind but at present we will extend this no further than to persons ruling or Legislators and observe what characters God in his Word puts upon them and how he fences them from resistance and how he ties all Commonalties to them by obedience for throughout all Scripture Kings are said not to reign over persons but Nations therefore called King of Israel Judah c. and Head of the Tribes of Israel so of all States under him Scripture sets forth Paternal Government how the first man was born under Government as God's Subject how all his posterity were under him and consequently how Paternal Government was the original of all Government and so all Mankind born under Government and therefore the precept of honoring Fathers or Parents being a Moral precept it is a proof that Government is founded in nature and was by extraction and not consent How paternal Government ceast hath been already set forth Nimrod by Sir Water Rawleigh is esteemed a Hunter or Usurper because he took upon him the Government over others without their consent or voluntary submission or choice not that he was an ill Prince And in Scripture the sanction or reward that is proposed for performing this duty shews the benefit of obedience for it is that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee for obedience of inferiors as hath been likewise observed is the most probable way to peace and peace unto a Societies welfare Hence it is that men are so strictly charged to reverence their Governors and Governors to look upon themselves as Ministers of God for good and as Revengers to execute wrath upon him that doth evil so as his power must be no terror to good works but employed for the good and praise or encouragement of those that do well When the Governor was not a natural Father to the end that he might not want natural affection unto his people if the people wanted one they were not to choose a Stranger but such a one as Moses and Joshua Samuel and Saul and David or whom God appointed See Deut. 17. where the promise of a Prince and virtues of a Prince are set forth and so Kingly rule a blessing and promise of God to his People from the beginning The Prince must have humility Scripture directions for a King that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren He must not multiply to himself horses least power incline him to be oppressive He must not give his strength to women for effeminacy abates courage and industry and softens and destroys him And Solomon adds another caution Let him not drink wine i. e. to excess lest he forget Gods law or neglect Religion and pervert judgment for both these make him lither or wretchless and unfit for the hardships and difficulties of Government Nor must he encrease Riches i. e. for his own private treasure or by the making his People miserable and poor make himself opulent that he may the more securely tyrannize But rich he must be since the ambition of Neighbours is at one time or another likely to disturb his Peace and since the constant charge and contingent expences of Governors is like to be so great therefore a full Exchequer becomes a good as well as a wise and a politick Prince Lastly Though human Policy must be used in human affairs and that it appears too too hard to expect the same strictness of morality in a King's Office which belongs to his persons as a man which is
will be thought the juster when he is sharp upon a particular man that demerits but to let fall his Majesty warrants low thoughts of him among the generality Thus Princes tho' as men they must live as men yet by reason of the dignity of their office they must either abstain from or use these familiarities in private or be prejudiced in their regal station And the person to whom the Prince communicates these favours if he be either vain or insolent upon them which is a hard task not to be he draws upon himself an insupportable envy and on his Masters reputation a great diminution The full glory of a Nation or its majesty is drawn as in a burning glass The Prince the true representative of a Nation into one point in the person of the King and therefore if he let it fall himself or any subject by abuse of his favour darken it it is an offence against the publick The office of a King or supream Governor is to govern multitudes of people and they are heady refractory and unsteady like horses apt to be resty without they find their Rider fast in the saddle and themselves commanded by the bit and spur or under a power How his power and majesty are necessary and thus power is necessary And common people like children are delighted with glorious and gay things and thus Majesty is necessary so as the reverence of civil Government is upheld much by the splendor of Majesty for without this popular fancy will not be pleased nor satisfied for which reason greatness ever stands in need of some sensible lustre Thus as there is a real necessity of power so considering how strong fancy is in multitudes there is a necessity that Majesty be as little neglected as Power The personal vertues of a Prince Power and Majesty are the two great supports of Soveraignty but they are best upheld by two personal virtues viz. that of Piety and that of Justice Piety Piety leads a Prince to believe that he is accountable unto God for the administration of his high office and it leads the subject to believe that that prince who acknowledges a greater power than his own and that a divine power is like to use his own unto good ends It bows his own heart unto God and his subjects unto himself or it disposes him to live well and his subjects to obey willingly It makes him watchful in the discharge of his own office and resolute against those who invade him in it It is the best directress both of his Power and Majesty for it keeps power from cruelty and majesty from disdaining of others It makes a Prince value the divine Providence that watches over him more than his Guards knowing without this civil wisdom or military power very often miscarry Indeed the vices of Princes always turn unto their own punishment for they that imitate them in their vice are aptest to disquiet them in their Government and thus they dishearten good subjects to uphold them and encourage ill to rebel against themselves Justice as it flows from piety Justice so it is upheld by power Justice must appear or be known to be armed or it is too like to be disputed in its execution Men entred into Society that they might enjoy the benefit of it and when it is obstructed a Common-weal is sick if generally not administred the band of Society is dissolved the execution of it is the life of the laws No arbitrary power or decision or reason of state must want justice for the standing laws and the arbitrary determinations of Soveraignty must both be reasonable and just the one may want the formalities or forms of process which the other is tyed unto but justice must be the life and spirit of them both And therefore they are narrow thoughts that think what is arbitrary is unjust for when it is the determination of a good and a wise man it is very often more perfect than the law it self because made a rule after the inconvenience of the law is perceived or wise men would make it a law or give it a sanction as soon as proposed So as I ever thought the binding the Judges or their binding themselves too strictly unto the letter of the law and formality of words and spellings in pleadings was like strait ligatures which hinder just circulation of humors for it is one thing to leave the Judge too loose but it is another more nocent to tye him up too strait This sets up distinct Courts of Equity and that multiplies suits and many other inconveniencies Keep an ill or corrupt man from being a Judge soon remove him when it is perceived nay severely punish him but pinion him not so as he must sit and see the craft of a Sollicitor or an Attorney evade the true meaning of the law in such a case let him as well as the party pincht by the subtilty of the plea have the liberty to put the case to a summary decision of all the Benches which he finds not fit to determine in his own Court Faithfulness Faithfulness in a Prince is but a part of his justice Lying lips says Solomon become not a Prince and the reason is that he that hath a generous heart will not stand in need of a false mouth A Prince ought to be cloathed with reputation which no man inwardly can render to him on whom he cannot depend or whose word he cannot rely on But because necessarily there must be granted unto men in civil affairs and in Kingly Policies a greater latitude than ought to be allowed in common conversation not of dealing falsely but of demeaning a mans self sagaciously therefore Princes and Ambassadors who know what weights are used seldom expect other coin than that which is mixt with an alloy which though it debaseth the mettal yet makes it work the better Chancellor Bacon distinguishes well betwixt dissimulation and simulation indeed the distinction is Cicero's in his Offices l. 3. making the first but an art of State or an art of life as Tacitus calls it i. e. an art of living among men that dissemble the other a false profession by which I think he means falsity when he professes sincerity which surely is a false Policy and no ways allowable the first he assigns unto Augustus the second unto Tiberius The first is but the art of a well managed horse who observing the hand knows how to stop on a sudden Undoubtedly where a Prince believes he is clearly dealt with he should be as clear in his dealing for though their condition exempts them from that openness and round dealing which is the honor of a private man's nature yet the importance of their obligations reaching unto the good or harm of so many private men they are admitted to have more of the serpentine windings than would become a private man Equivocations must necessarily be disallowed by all men in Treaties but
Precipitation like the warmth of a chimney that hath a tree behind it makes the fruit forward and soft but not mellow and well tasted And thus it fares with all other matters for a forced ripeness prejudices both a good taste and nourishment Council is no where better set forth than in Ecclesiasticus ch 22. v. 16. and 17. It settles the heart upon a thought of understanding or weighs consequences for says he as timber girt and bound together in a building cannot be loosed with shaking so the heart that is stablished by advised council shall fear at no time Confederations A principal work of Council is the deliberating about confederations which are leagues made between several Soveraign Princes independent one on the other The law of human nature obliges all nations to be just and kind unto one another so as when ever they have intercourse with one another they are ty'd unto each other by natural justice as being of one kind or species so as though they never know one another yet they are thus bound to one another if ever they have intercourse or commerce And then all their leagues are but political results of natural justice and wisdom for justice examines the principles of their confederation and wisdom the end of it viz. that it be really for reciprocal and mutual good or that it be just in the beginning and wise in the end And thus from home-affairs we must now transport our selves unto forreign and weigh those things which concern peace and war between several Nations On which subject Grotius has erected an everlasting monument so as this small and fresh stream is but to lead a Novice unto the mouth of the arm of that sea Nations stood in need of one anothers help Nations benefited thereby and were benefitted by one anothers assistance and interchange of native commodities as much as private men of one and the same Nation and City do of one anothers helps in their several trades and professions for reciprocal advantages are the grounds of all common societies Treaties of Peace and War This is the root of all Treaties viz. those of 1. peace or commerce 2. war offensive defensive or both by land Sea 3. and of all other constitutions and agreements All Treaties depend on veracity and sincerity If veracity and sincerity and openness of dealing and plain heartedness planted in man by his Creator for the security of society had not degenerated and been vitiated by covetousness ambition envy and self-love the benefits of society had been the chief comforts of man's life and the whole world had appeared but as the Creator's great family But now nighest relations being apt to deceive one another it is no marvel that forreign Treaties are for the most part deceitful so as a modern learned and good States-man the Lord Cherbury gives it for a rule that in forreign Treaties where a present advantage is but little and a future great it is the wisest thing to take the less because too probably before the time come about wherein the future and greater advantage is to be reaped the face of affairs may be so changed that the stipulated future advantage will be lost I have forgot his words but his sense I think I have not altered Somewhat must be in the matter when Marcus Aurelius I may say the best moral heathen Prince allows in such cases a Prince to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or semi-malus The difficulty of making and keeping leagues and as Cicero says Nec possunt aliter ii quibus commissa est tota Respublica And yet this good man says in another place Ne quid insidiosè ne quid simulatè ne quid fallaciter so as treachery and fallacy and simulation are absolutely rejected whilst dissimulation or a concealing a matter or using worldly prudence or disguise seems allowable because unavoidable for says another Non regent qui non tegent It is one thing if a State be so foolish like an Indian to part with his gold for a bead because he is pleased with it and another if the Merchant should aver his bead was of an intrinsick value through the whole world with the others gold Sure I am injustice and breach of faith agrees not with humanity less than will it square with Christianity the root of man's misery is in not daring to trust himself unto the law of his own nature and the providence of his Maker Equivocal words in Treaties have been very pleasant to the palate of those Equivocal words that first gave them but have been very bitter in the stomack afterwards Charles the fifth for pressing upon the Landgrave of Hesse an exposition which suited not with the Duke of Saxe's promise to his Father-in-law the Landgrave though Saxe was made Elector by the same Emperor yet made such a confederation against him as drove the Emperor out of Germany If a Prince ignorantly or passionately wave the true interest of his Nation or too strongly stem the tide of his Peoples inclination such Treaties never last long and yet a wise Prince may rather give way unto the torrent of some prosperous Prince and bow to his fortune than put matters to the hazard of a doubtful war Thus such as are drawn from their proper interest by an unavoidable necessity are pardoned for making such abrupt changes or giving such assistances as Boccalini says the smaller Princes of Italy were by Apollo since men of their small interest in the world though it be an indecent thing says he must chew their meat on both sides their chops Thus Italy did betwixt Charles the eighth and Ferdinand and Charles the fifth and Francis the first But it is the dishonour of Christianity that Treaties are so solemnly made nay and sworn unto and yet so easily broken and so 〈◊〉 by that high Priest who pretends to be the Vicar of the man nay of the God of truth dispensed with And therefore after all these ceremonies sometimes Princes are forced to give hostages and 〈◊〉 giving hostages sometimes we find a Prince rather abate of his natural affection than prejudice his affairs of State So as Francis the first chose rather to give his Sons for hostages thâ—â— twelve of his principal Ministers of State Hence it is The difficulties that attend upon Treaties there is no profession hath more need of artifices than that of an Ambassador or Secretary of State The very preliminaries to a Treaty have oftentimes as much picking work and thorny circumstances as the Treaty it self for when two Princes in difference are both weary of their distances or contention and so both affected towards a reconciliation some punctilio arises how they may have a right intelligence and yet neither seem forwarder to a peace than the other For then a third Prince must make that to be an act of his good affection which is a strong desire of them both and he must make