order'd that every one in his turn coms up to give the Charge of the whole Army so tho the whole People cannot give the Result at one and the same time yet may they be so order'd that every one in his turn may com up to give the Result of the whole People 24. A POPULAR Assembly rightly order'd brings up every one in his turn to give the Result of the whole People 25. IF the popular Assembly consists of one thousand or more annually changeable in one third part by new Elections made in the Tribes by the People it is rightly order'd that is to say so constituted that such an Assembly can have no other Interest wherupon to give the Result than that only which is the Interest of the whole People 26. BUT in vain is Result where there is not Matter to resolve upon and where maturity of Debate has not preceded there is not yet Matter to resolve upon 27. DEBATE to be mature cannot be manag'd by a Multitude and Result to be popular cannot be given by a Few 28. IF a Council capable of Debate has also the Result it is Oligarchy If an Assembly capable of the Result has Debate also it is Anarchy Debate in a Council not capable of Result and Result in an Assembly not capable of Debate is Democracy 29. IT is not more natural to a People in their own affairs to be their own chusers than upon that occasion to be provided of their Learned Counsil in so much that the saying of PACUVIUS That either a People is govern'd by a King or counsil'd by a Senat is universally approv'd 30. WHERE the Senat has no distinct Interest there the People are counsillable and venture not upon Debate where the Senat has any distinct Interest there the People are not counsillable but fall into Debate among themselves and so into Confusion 31. OF Senats there are three kinds First A Senat eligible out of Chap. VI the Nobility only as that of Rome which will not be contented to be merely the Council of the People but will be contending that they are Lords of the People never quitting their pretensions till they have ruin'd the Commonwealth Secondly A Senat elected for life as that of Sparta which will be a species of Nobility and will have a kind of Spartan King and a Senat upon rotation which being rightly constituted is quiet and never pretends more than to be the learned Council of the People 32. THIRDLY Three hundred Senators for example changeable in one third part of them annually by new Elections in the Tribes and constituted a Senat to debate upon all Civil matters to promulgat to the whole Nation what they have debated this Promulgation to be made som such convenient time before the Matters by them debated are to be propos'd that they may be commonly known and well understood and then to propose the same to the Result of the Popular Assembly which only is to be the Test of every public Act is a Senat rightly order'd FORM of Government as to the Civil part being thus completed is sum'd up in the three following Aphorisms 33. ABSOLUTE Monarchy for the Civil part of the Form consists of distinct Provinces under distinct Governors equally subordinat to a Grand Signor or sole Lord with his Council or Divan debating and proposing and the Result wholly and only in himself 34. REGULATED Monarchy for the Civil part of the Form consists of distinct Principalitys or Countys under distinct Lords or Governors which if rightly constituted are equally subordinat to the King and his Peerage or to the King and his Estates assembl'd in Parlament without whose Consent the King can do nothing 35. DEMOCRACY for the Civil part of the Form if rightly constituted consists of distinct Tribes under the Government of distinct Magistrats Courts or Councils regularly changeable in one third part upon annual Elections and subordinat to a Senat consisting of not above three hundred Senators and to a popular Assembly consisting of not under a thousand Deputys each of these also regularly changeable in one third part upon annual Elections in the Tribes the Senat having the Debate and the Popular Assembly the Result of the whole Commonwealth CHAP. VI. Of Form in the Religious part 1. FORM for the Religious part either admits of Liberty of Conscience in the whole or in part or dos not admit of Liberty of Conscience at all 2. LIBERTY of Conscience intire or in the whole is where a man according to the dictats of his own Conscience may have the Chap. VI free exercise of his Religion without impediment to his Preferment or Imployment in the State 3. LIBERTY of Conscience in part is where a man according to the dictats of his Conscience may have the free exercise of his Religion but if it be not the National Religion he is therby incapable of Preferment or Imployment in the State 4. WHERE the Form admits not of the free exercise of any other Religion except that only which is National there is no Liberty of Conscience 5. MEN who have the means to assert Liberty of Conscience have the means to assert Civil Liberty and will do it if they are opprest in their Consciences 6. MEN participating in Property or in Imployment Civil or Military have the means to assert Liberty of Conscience 7. ABSOLUTE Monarchy being sole Proprietor may admit of Liberty of Conscience to such as are not capable of Civil or Military Imployment and yet not admit of the means to assert Civil Liberty as the Greec Christians under the Turk who tho they injoy Liberty of Conscience cannot assert Civil Liberty because they have neither Property nor any Civil or Military Imployments 8. REGULATED Monarchy being not sole Proprietor may not admit naturally of Liberty of Conscience lest it admits of the means to assert Civil Liberty as was lately seen in England by pulling down the Bishops who for the most part are one half of the Foundation of regulated Monarchy 9. DEMOCRACY being nothing but intire Liberty and Liberty of Conscience without Civil Liberty or Civil Liberty without Liberty of Conscience being but Liberty by halves must admit of Liberty of Conscience both as to the perfection of its present being and as to its future security As to the perfection of its present being for the Reasons already shewn or that she do not injoy Liberty by halves and for future security because this excludes absolute Monarchy which cannot stand with Liberty of Conscience in the whole and regulated Monarchy which cannot stand safely with it in any part 10. IF it be said that in France there is Liberty of Conscience in part it is also plain that while the Hierarchy is standing this Liberty is falling and that if ever it coms to pull down the Hierarchy it pulls down that Monarchy also wherfore the Monarchy or Hierarchy will be beforehand with it if they see their true Interest 11. THE ultimat Result in
against the Act perswaded most of the Nobility to make him King so that MILCOLM the Son of KENNETH and he made up two Factions which tore the Kingdom till at length MILCOLMS Bastard Brother himself being in England assisting the Danes fought him routed his Army and with the loss of his own Life took away his they dying of mutual Wounds GRIME of whose Birth they do not certainly agree was chosen by the Constantinians who made a good Party but at the Intercession of FORARD an accounted Rabbi of the times they at last agreed GRIME being to enjoy the Kingdom for his Life after which MILCOLUMB should succede his Father's Law standing in force But he after declining into Leudness Cruelty and Spoil as Princes drunk with Greatness and Prosperity use to do the People call'd back MILCOLUMB who rather receiving Battle than giving it for it was upon Ascension-day his principal Holy-day routed his Forces wounded himself took him pull'd out his Eyes which altogether made an end of his Life all Factions and Humors being reconcil'd MILCOLUMB who with various Fortune fought many signal Battles with the Danes that under their King SUENO had invaded Scotland in his latter time grew to such Covetousness and Oppression that all Authors agree he was murder'd tho they disagree about the manner som say by Conâ—ederacy with his Servants som by his Kinsmen and Competitors som by the Friends of a Maid whom he had ravish'd DONALD his Grandchild succeded a good-natur'd and inactive Prince who with a Stratagem of sleepy Drink destroy'd a Danish Army that had invaded and distrest him but at last being insnar'd by his Kinsman MACKBETH who was prick'd forward by Ambition and a former Vision of three Women of a sour human shape whereof one saluted him Thane of Angus another Earl of Murray the third King he was beheaded THE Severity and Cruelty of MACKBETH was so known that both the Sons of the murder'd King were forc'd to retire and yeild to the times while he courted the Nobility with Largesses The first ten years he spent virtuously but the remainder was so savage and tyrannical that MACDUF Thane of Fife fled into England to MILCOLM Son of DONALD who by his persuasions and the assistance of the King of England enter'd Scotland where he found such great accessions to his Party that MACKBETH was forc'd to fly his Death is hid in such a mist of Fables that it is not certainly known MILCOLUMB the third of that name now being quietly seated was the first that brought in those gay inventions and distinctions of Honors as Dukes Marquesses that now are become so airy that som carry them from places to which they have as little relation as to any Iland in America and others from Cottages and Dovecotes His first trouble was FORFAR MACKBETH'S Son who claim'd the Crown but was soon after cut of Som War he had with that WILLIAM whom we call falsly the Conqueror som with his own People which by the intercession of the Bishops were ended At length quarrelling with our WILLIAM the Second he laid siege to Alnwick Castle which being forc'd to extremity a Knight came out with the Keys on a Spear as if it were to present them to him and and to yield the Castle but he not with due heed receiving them was run through the Ey and slain Som from hence derive the name of PIERCY how truly I know not His Son and Successor EDWARD following his Revenge too hotly receiv'd som Wounds of which within a few days he dy'd DONALD BANE that is in Irish White who had fled into the Iles for fear of MACKBETH promis'd them to the King of Norway if he would procure him to be King which was don with ease as the times then stood but this Usurper being hated by the People who generally lov'd the memory of MILCOLM they seâ— DUNCAN MILCOLM'S Bastard against him who forc'd him to retire to his Iles. DUNCAN a military Man shew'd himself unfit for Civil Government so that DONALD waiting all advantages caus'd him to be beheaded and restor'd himself But his Reign was so turbulent the Ilanders and English invading on both sides that they call'd in EDGAR Son of MILCOLM then in England who with small Assistances possest himself all Men deserting DONALD who being taken and brought to the King dy'd in Prison EDGAR secure by his good Qualitys and strengthen'd by the English Alliance spent nine years virtuously and peaceably and gave the People leave to breathe and rest after so much trouble and bloodshed His Brother ALEXANDER sirnam'd ACER or the Fierce succeded the beginning of whose Reign being disturb'd by a Rebellion he speedily met them at the Spey which being a swift River and the Enemy on the other side he offer'd himself to ford it on Horseback but ALEXANDER CAR taking the Imployment from him forded the River with such Courage that the Enemy fled and were quiet the rest of his Reign Som say he had the name of ACER because som Conspirators being by the fraud of the Chamberlain admitted into his Chamber he casually waking first slew the Chamberlain and after him six of the Conspirators not ceasing to pursue the rest till he had slain most of them with his own hands this with the building of som Abbys and seventeen years Reign is all we know of him HIS Brother DAVID succeded one whose profuse Prodigality upon the Abbys brought the Revenue of the Crown so prevalent was the Superstition of those days almost to nothing He had many Battels with our STEPHEN about the Title of MAUD the Empress and having lost his excellent Wife and hopeful Son in the flower of their days he left the Kingdom to his Grandchildren the eldest wherof was MILCOLUMB a simple King baffl'd and led up and down into France by our HENRY the Second which brought him to such contemt that he was vex'd by frequent Insurrections especially them of Murray whom he almost extirpated The latter part of his Reign was spent in building Monasterys he himself ty'd by a Vow of Chastity would never marry but left for his Successor his Brother WILLIAM who expostulating for the Earldom of Northumberland gave occasion for a War in which he was surpriz'd and taken but afterwards releas'd upon his doing Homage for the Kingdom of Scotland to King HENRY of whom he acknowledg'd to hold it and putting in caution the Castles of Roxboro once strong now nothing but Ruins Barwic Edinburg Sterling all which notwithstanding was after releas'd by RICHARD Coeur de Lyon who was then upon an Expedition to the Holy War from whence returning both he and DAVID Earl of Huntingdon Brother to the King of Scots were taken Prisoners The rest of his Reign except the rebuilding of St. Johnston which had bin destroy'd by Waters wherby he lost his eldest Son and som Treatys with our King JOHN was little worth memory only you will wonder that a Scotish King could reign forty nine
such an Example are posted As if for a Christian Commonwealth to make so much use of Israel as the Roman did of Athens whose Laws she transcrib'd were against the Interest of the Clergy which it seems is so hostil to popular Power that to say the Laws of Nature tho they be the Fountains of all Civil Law are not the Civil Law till they be the Civil Law or thus that thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal tho they be in natural Equity yet were not the Laws of Israel or of England till voted by the People of Israel or the Parlament of England is to assert Consid p. 35 40. the People into the mighty Liberty of being free from the whole moral Law and inasmuch as to be the Adviser or Persuader of a thing is less than to be the Author or Commander of it to put an Indignity upon God himself In which Fopperys the Prevaricator boasting of Principles but minding none first confounds Authority and Command or Power and next forgets that the dignity of the Legislator or which is all one of the Senat succeding to his Office as the Sanhedrim to MOSES is the greatest dignity in a Commonwealth and yet that the Laws or Orders of a Commonwealth derive no otherwise whether from the Legislator as MOSES LYCURGUS SOLON c. or the Senat as those of Israel Lacedemon or Athens than from their Authority receiv'd and confirm'd by the Vote or Command of the People It is true that with Almighty God it is otherwise than with a mortal Legislator but thro another Nature which to him is peculiar from whom as he is the cause of being or the Creator of Mankind Omnipotent Power is inseparable yet so equal is the goodness of this Nature to the greatness therof that as he is the cause of welbeing by way of Election for example in his chosen People Israel or of Redemption as in the Christian Church himself has prefer'd his Authority or Proposition before his Empire What else is the Book I meaning of these words or of this proceding of his Now therfore if ye will obey my Voice indeed and keep my Covenant ye shall be to me a Exod. 19. 5. Kingdom or I will be your King which Proposition being voted by the People in the Affirmative God procedes to propose to them the ten Commandments in so dreadful a manner that the People being excedingly Exod. 20. 19. afrighted say to MOSES Speak thou with us and we will hear thee that is be thou henceforth our Legislator or Proposer and we will resolve accordingly but let not God speak with us lest we dy From whenceforth God proposes to the People no otherwise than by MOSES whom he instructs in this manner These are the Judgments which thou shalt propose or set before them Wherfore it is said of the Deut. 29. 1. Book of Deuteronomy containing the Covenant which the Lord commanded MOSES to make with the Children of Israel in the Land of Moab besides the Covenant which he made with them in Horeb This is Deut. 4. 44. the Law which MOSES set before the Children of Israel Neither did GOD in this case make use of his Omnipotent Power nor CHRIST in the like who also is King after the fame manner in his Church and would have bin in Israel where when to this end he might have muster'd up Legions of Angels and bin victorious with such Armys or Argyraspides as never Prince could shew the like he says no more Matth. 23. 37. than O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gather'd thee and thy Children as a Hen gathers her Chickens under her wings and ye would not where it is plain that the Jews rejecting CHRIST that he should not reign over them the Law of the Gospel came not to be the Law of the Jews and so if the ten Commandments came to be the Law of Israel it was not only because God propos'd them seeing Christ also propos'd his Law which nevertheless came not to be the Law of the Jews but because the People receiv'd the one and rejected the other It is not in the nature of Religion that it should be thought a profane saying that if the Bible be in England or in any other Government the Law or Religion of the Land it is not only because God has propos'd it but also because the People or Magistrat has receiv'd it or resolv'd upon it otherwise we must set lighter by a Nation or Government than by a privat Person who can have no part nor portion in this Law unless he vote it to himself in his own Conscience without which he remains in the condition he was before and as the Heathen who are a Law to themselves Thus wheras in a Covenant there must be two Partys the Old and New Testament being in sum the Old and New Covenant these are that Authority and Proposition of GOD and CHRIST to which they that refuse their Vote or Result may be under the Empire of a Clergy but are none of his Commonwealth Nor seeing I am gon so far dos this at all imply Freewil but as is admirably observ'd by Mr. HOBBS the freedom of that which naturally precedes Will namely Deliberation or Debate in which as the Scale by the weight of Reason or Passion coms to be turn'd one way or other the Will is caus'd and being caus'd is necessitated When God coms in thus upon the Soul of Man he gives both the Will and the Deed from which like Ossice of the Senat in a Commonwealth that is from the excellency of their Deliberation and Debate which prudently and faithfully unsolded to the People dos also frequently cause and necessitat both the Will and the Deed. GOD himself has said of the Senat that they are Gods an expression tho divine yet not unknown to the Heathens Homo homini Deus one man for the excellency of his Aid may be a God to Chap. 8 another But let the Prevaricator look to it for he that leads the blind out of his way is his Devil FOR the things I have of this kind as also for what I have said upon the words Chirotonia and Ecclesia the Prevaricator is delighted to make me beholden underhand to Mr. HOBBS notwithstanding the open enmity which he says I profess to his Politics As if JOSEPHUS upon that of SAMUEL They have not rejected thee but they have rejected me 1 Sam. 8. 7. that I should not reign over them had not said of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom Now if they unchirotoniz'd or unvoted God of the Kingdom then they had chirotoniz'd or voted him to the Kingdom and so not only the Doctrin that God was King in Israel by Compact or Covenant but the use of the word Chirotonia also in the sense I understand it is more antient than Mr. HOBBS I might add that of CAPELLUS
what is said nor cares what he says to affirm that a Commonwealth was never conquer'd by any Monarch and that a Commonwealth has conquer'd many Monarchs or frequently led mighty Kings in triumph is to run upon the foil the second Proposition being with him no more than only the conversion of the first As if that Rome was not conquer'd by Consid p. 55. the World and that the World was conquer'd by Rome were but a simple conversion So the World having not conquer'd Venice it must follow that Venice has conquer'd the World Do we take or are we taken Nor is he thus satisfy'd to burn his fingers but he will blister his tongue WHERE I said that the Commonwealth of Venice consisting of all them that first fled from the main Land to those Ilands where the City is now planted at the Institution took in the whole People he would make you believe I had said that the Senat of Venice at the first Institution took in the whole People It is matter of fact and that in Consid p. 70. Oceana p. 43. which his Integrity will be apparent to every man's judgment I pray see the places And yet when he has put this trick upon me he tells me perhaps it is not true and this only I grant him past peradventure is false whether that I said it or that the thing is possible For how is it possible that the Senat which is no otherwise such than as it consists of the Aristocracy or select part of the People should take in the whole People It is true that good Authors both antient and modern when they speak of the Senat of Rome or of Venice historically imply the People MACCHIAVEL speaks of the Magistracy of PUBLILIUS PHILO as prolong'd by the Senat of Rome without making any mention of the People by whom nevertheless it was granted the like is usual with other Authors THUANUS seldom mentions the Commonwealth of Venice but by the name of the Senat which not understood by the learned Considerer where CONTARINI speaks in the same manner of the Courses taken by the Commonwealth of Venice for withholding the Subject in the City from Sedition he takes him to be speaking of the means wherby the Senat an 't please you keeps the People under and so having put one trick upon me and another upon Book I CONTARINI these two are his Premises whence he draws this Conclusion That Venice is as much as any in the World an inequal Common-wealth Now the Conclusion you know no body can deny CHAP. XI Whether there be not an Agrarian or som Law or Laws of that nature to supply the defect of it in every Commonwealth and whether the Agrarian as it is stated in Oceana be not equal and satisfactory to all Interests IN this Chapter the Prevaricator's Devices are the most welfavor'd for wheras the Agrarian of Oceana dos no more than pin the basket which is already fill'd he gets up into the Tree where the Birds have long since eaten all the Cherrys and with what Clouts he can rake up makes a most ridiculous Scarcrow This pains he needed not to have taken if he had not slighted overmuch the Lexicon of which he allows me to be the Author yet will have it that he understood the words before som of which nevertheless his ill understanding requires should be further interpreted in this place as Property Balance Agrarian and Levelling PROPERTY is that which is every mans own by the Law of the Land and of this there is nothing stir'd but all intirely left as it was found by the Agrarian of Oceana PROPERTY in Mony except as has bin shewn in Citys that have little or no Territory coms not to the present account But Property in Land according to the distribution that happens to be of the same causes the political Balance producing Empire of the like nature that is if the Property in Lands be so diffus'd thro the whole People that neither one Landlord nor a few Landlords overbalance them the Empire is popular If the Property in Lands be so ingrost by the Few that they overbalance the whole People the Empire is Aristocratical or mix'd Monarchy but if Property in Lands be in one Landlord to such a proportion as overbalances the whole People the Empire is absolute Monarchy So the political Balance is threefold Democratical Aristocratical and Monarchical EACH of these Balances may be introduc'd either by the Legislator at the institution of the Government or by civil Vicissitude Alienation or Alteration of Property under Government EXAMPLES of the Balance introduc'd at the Institution and by the Legislator are first those in Israel and Lacedemon introduc'd by GOD or MOSES and LYCURGUS which were Democratical or Popular Secondly Those in England France and Spain introduc'd by the Goths Vandals Saxons and Franks which were Aristocratical or such as produc'd the Government of King Lords and Commons Thirdly Those in the East and Turky introduc'd by NIMROD and MAHOMET or OTTOMAN which were purely Monarchical EXAMPLES of the Balance introduc'd by civil Vicissitude Alienation or Alteration of Property under Government are in Florence where the MEDICI attaining to excessive wealth the Balance alter'd Chap. 11 from Popular to Monarchical In Greece where the Argives being lovers Pausan Corinth of Equality and Liberty reduc'd the Power of their Kings to so small a matter that there remain'd to the Children and Successors of CISUS little more than the Title where the Balance alter'd from Monarchical to Popular In Rome about the time of CRASSUS the Nobility having eaten the People out of their Lands the Balance alter'd from Popular first to Aristocratical as in the Triumvirs CESAR POMPEY and CRASSUS and then to Monarchical as when CRASSUS being dead and POMPEY conquer'd the whole came to CESAR In Tarentum not long after the War with the Medes Arist Pol. L. 5. c. 3. the Nobility being wasted and overcom by Iapyges the Balance and with that the Commonwealth chang'd from Aristocratical to Popular The like of late has discover'd it self in Oceana When a Balance coms so thro civil Vicissitude to be chang'd that the change cannot be attributed to human Providence it is more peculiarly to be ascrib'd to the hand of God and so when there happens to be an irresistible change of the Balance not the old Government which God has repeal'd but the new Government which he dictats as present Legislator is of Divine Right THIS Volubility of the Balance being apparent it belongs to Legislators to have eys and to occur with som prudential or legal Remedy or Prevention and the Laws that are made in this case are call'd Agrarian So An Agrarian is a Law sixing the Balance of a Government in such a manner that it cannot alter THIS may be don divers ways as by intailing the Lands upon certain Familys without power of Alienation in any case as in Israel and Lacedemon or except with leave
a People that they should overcom the like difficultys by reason wherof the wisest Nations finding themselves under the necessity of a change or of a new Government induc'd by such offers as promis'd fair or against which they could find no exceptions have usually acted as men do by new Clothes that is put them on that if they be not exactly fit at first they may either fit themselves to the body in wearing or therby more plainly shew wherin they can be mended even by such as would otherwise prove but bad workmen Nor has any such offer bin thought to have more Presumtion much less Treason in it than if one conscious of his skill in Architecture should offer himself to the Prince or State to build a more convenient Parlament house England is now in such a condition that he who may be truly said to give her Law shall never govern her and he who will govern her shall never give her Law Yet som will have it that to assert Popular Power is to sow the seed of Civil War and object against a Commonwealth as not to be introduc'd but by Arms which by the undeniable testimony of later Experience is of all other Objections the most extravagant for if the good old Cause against the desire even of the Army and of all men well affected to their Country could be trod under foot without blood what more certain demonstration can there be that let the deliberations upon or changes of Government be of what kind soever which shall please a Parlament there is no appearance that they can occasion any Civil War Streams that are stop'd may urge their Banks but the course of England into a Commonwealth is both certain and natural The ways of Nature require Peace The ways of Peace require Obedience to the Laws Laws in England cannot be made but by Parlaments Parlaments in England are com to be mere popular Assemblys The Laws made by popular Assemblys tho for a time they may be aw'd or deceiv'd in the end must be popular Laws and the sum of popular Laws must amount to a Commonwealth The whole doubt or hazard of this Consequence remains upon one question Whether a single Council consisting but of four hundred indu'd both with Debate and Result the Keys of whose Doors are in the hands of ambitious men in the croud and confusion of whose Election the People are as careless as tumultuous and easy thro the want of good Orders to be deluded while the Clergy declar'd and inveterat Enemys of popular Power are laying about and sweating in the throng as if it were in the Vinyard upon whose Benches Lawyers being feather'd and arm'd like sharp and sudden Arrows with a privat interest pointblank against the Public may and frequently do swarm can indeed be call'd a popular Council This I confess may set the whole state of Liberty upon the cast of a Dy yet questionless it is more than odds on the behalf of a Commonwealth when a Government labors in frequent or long struggles not thro any certain biass of Genius or Nature that can be in such a Council but thro the impotence of such Conclusions as may go awry and the external force or state of Property now fully introduc'd whence such a Council may wander but never find any rest or settlement except only in that natural and proper Form of Government which is to be erected upon a mere Popular Foundation All other ways of proceding must be void as inevitably guilty of contradiction in the Superstructures to the Foundation which have amounted and may amount to the discouragement of honest men but with no other success than to imbroil or retard Business England being not capable of any other permanent Form than that only of a Common-wealth tho her supreme Council be so constituted that it may be Monarchically inclin'd This contradiction in the Frame is the frequent occasion of contradictory Expostulations and Questions How say they should we have a Commonwealth Which way is it possible that it should com in And how say I can we fail of a Commonwealth What possibility is there we should miss of it IF a man replys he answers thus No Army ever set up a Common-wealth To the contrary I instance the Army of Israel under MOSES that of Athens about the time of ALCIBIADES that of Rome upon the expulsion of the TARQUINS those of Switzerland and Holland But say they other Armys have not set up Commonwealths True indeed divers other Armys have not set up Commonwealths yet is not that any Argument why our Armys should not For in all Armys that have not set up Commonwealths either the Officers have had no Fortunes or Estates at all but immediatly dependent upon the mere Will of the Prince as the Turkish Armys and all those of the Eastern Countrys or the Officers have bin a Nobility commanding their own Tenants Certain it is That either of these Armys can set up nothing but Monarchy But our Officers hold not Estates of Noblemen able upon their own Lands to levy Regiments in which case they would take home their People to plow or make Hay nor are they yet so put to it for their Livelihood as to depend wholly upon a Prince in which case they would fall on robbing the People but have good honest Popular Estates to them and their Heirs for never Now an Army where the Estates of the Officers were of this kind in no reason can in no experience ever did set up Monarchy Ay but say they for all that their Pay to them is more considerable than their Estates But so much more must they be for a Commonwealth because the Parlament must pay and they have found by experience that the Pay of a Parlament is far better than that of a Prince But the four hundred being Monarchically inclin'd or running upon the Interest of those irreconcilable Enemys of Popular Power Divines and Lawyers will rather pay an Army for commanding or for supporting of a Prince than for obeying Which may be true as was acknowleg'd before in the way but in the end or at the long run for the reasons mention'd must be of no effect THESE Arguments are from the Cause now for an Argument to Sense and from the Effect If our Armys would raise Mony of themselves or which is all one would make a King why have they not made a King in so many Years Why did they not make one yesterday Why do they not to day Nay why have they ever bin why do they still continue to be of all others in this point the most averse and refractory BVT if the case be so with us that Nature runs wholly to a Common-wealth and we have no such Force as can withstand Nature why may we not as well have golden Dreams of what this Commonwealth may be as of the Indys of Flanders or of the Sound The Frame of a Commonwealth may be dreamt on or propos'd two
have their Liberty not in word but in deed but that is Heathenism that 's CICERO well this is Christian if there will bâ— no such saying I would there might be no swearing Feb. 6. 1659. THE HUMBLE PETITION OF DIVERS Well affected Persons Deliver'd the 6 th day of July 1659. With the PARLAMENT'S Answer therto TO THE SUPREME AUTHORITY THE Parlament of the Commonwealth of England The Humble Petition of divers well affected Persons SHEWS THAT your Petitioners have for many years observ'd the breathings and longings of this Nation after Rest and Settlement and that upon mistaken grounds they have bin ready even to sacrifice and yield up part of their own undoubted right to follow after an appearance of it AND your Petitioners do daily see the bad effects of long continu'd Distractions in the ruins and decays of Trade foren and domestic and in the advantages that are taken to make Confederacys to involve the Nation in Blood and Confusion under pretence of procuring a Settlement THAT it has bin the practice of all Nations on the subversion of any form of Government to provide immediatly a new Constitution sutable to their condition with certain Successions and Descents that so both their Lawgivers and Magistrats might use their several Trusts according to the establish'd Constitution and the Peoples minds be settl'd secure and free from attemts of introducing several forms of Government according to the variety of their Fancys or corrupt Interests THAT God has preserv'd this Nation wonderfully without example many years since the dissolution of the old form of Government by King Lords and Commons there having bin no fundamental Constitutions of any kind duly settl'd nor any certain Succession provided for the Legislative Power but even at this instant if by any sudden sickness design or force any considerable numbers of your Persons should be render'd incapable of meeting in Parlament the Commonwealth were without form of successive Legislature or Magistracy and left to the mercy of the strongest Faction Yet we have reason to remember in these years of unsettlement the inexpressible sufferings of this Nation in their Strength Wealth Honor Liberty and all things conducing to their welbeing and we have like reason now sadly to apprehend the impending ruin And we cannot discern a possibility of your Honors unanimous and expeditious procedings towards our Countrys preservation and relief from its heavy pressures while your minds are not settl'd in any known Constitution of Government or fundamental Orders according to which all Laws should be made but divers or contrary Interests may be prosecuted on different apprehensions of the Justice and Prudence of different forms of Government tho all with good intentions YOVR Petitioners therfore conceiving no remedy so effectual against the present Dangers as the settlement of the Peoples minds and putting them into actual security of their Propertys and Libertys by a due establishment of the Constitution under which they may evidently apprehend their certain injoyment of them and therupon a return of their Trade and free Commerce without those continual fears that make such frequent stops in Trade to the ruin of thousands AND your Petitioners also observing that the Interest of the late King's Son is cry'd up and promoted daily upon pretence that there will be nothing but Confusion and Tyranny till he com to govern and that such as declare for a Commonwealth are for Anarchy and Confusion and can never agree among themselves what they would have VPON serious thoughts of the Premises your Petitioners do presume with all humility and submission to your Wisdom to offer to your Honors their Principles and Proposals concerning the Government of this Nation Wherupon they humbly conceive a just and prudent Government ought to be establish'd viz. 1. THAT the Constitution of the Civil Government of England by King Lords and Commons being dissolv'd whatever new Constitution of Government can be made or settl'd according to any rule of Righteousness it can be no other than a wise Order or Method into which the free Peoples Deputys shall be form'd for the making of their Laws and taking care for their common safety and welfare in the execution of them For the exercise of all just Authority over a free People ought under God to arise from their own Consent 2. THAT the Government of a free People ought to be so settl'd that the Governors and Govern'd may have the same Interest in preservâ—ng the Government and each others Propertys and Libertys respectively that being the only sure foundation of a Commonwealth's Unity Peace Strength and Prosperity 3. THAT there cannot be a Union of the Interests of a whole Nation in the Government where those who shall somtimes govern be not also somtimes in the condition of the Govern'd otherwise the Governors will not be in a capacity to feel the weight of the Government nor the Govern'd to injoy the advantages of it And then it will be the interest of the major part to destroy the Government as much as it will be the interest of the minor part to preserve it 4. THAT there is no security that the Supreme Authority shall not fall into Factions and be led by their privat Interest to keep themselves always in power and direct the Government to their privat advantages if that Supreme Authority be settl'd in any single Assembly whasoever that shall have the intire power of propounding debating and resolving Laws 5. THAT the Soverain Authority in every Government of what kind soever ought to be certain in its perpetual Successions Revolutions or Descents and without possibility by the judgment of human Prudence of a death or failure of its being because the whole form of the Government is dissolv'd if that should happen and the People in the utmost imminent danger of an absolute Tyranny or a War among themselves or Rapin and Confusion And therfore where the Government is Popular the Assemblys in whom reside the Supreme Authority ought never to dy or dissolve tho the Persons be annually changing neither ought they to trust the Soverain care of the strength and safety of the People out of their own hands by allowing a Vacation to themselves lest those that should be trusted be in love with such great Authority and aspire to be their Masters or else fear an Account and seek the dissolution of the Commonwealth to avoid it 6. THAT it ought to be declar'd as a Fundamental Order in the Constitution of this Commonwealth that the Parlament being the Supreme Legislative Power is intended only for the exercise of all those Acts of Authority that are proper and peculiar to the Legislative Power and to provide for a Magistracy to whom should appertain the whole Executive Power of the Laws and no Case either Civil or Criminal to be judg'd in Parlament saving that the last Appeals in all Cases where Appeals shall be thought fit to be admitted be only to the Popular Assembly and also that to