mixture of both Interests Patrician and Popular under which Form they attained to the height of all their Glory and Greatness In this Form of Free-State we now see the Venetian where the Patrician is predominant and the People a little too much kept under The same Form is imbraced also by our Neighbours the United Provinces but the best part of their Interest lies deposited in the hands of the people Rome kept up their Senate as their standing Councel for the managing of State-affairs which require Wisdom and Experience but as for making of Laws and the main Acts of Supremacy they were reserv'd to the Grand Assemblies so that the People gave Rules whereby to govern and the secrets of Government were intrusted in the hands of the Senate And this Commonwealth ever thriv'd best when the People had most Power and used most Moderation and though they made use of it now and then to fly out into extravagant courses yet they were no lasting fits like those distempers that brake out through the Ambition of the Senators Besides we cannot but take notice as long as the Popular Interest continued regular and more predominant than the other so long the People were secure of their Liberties which enjoyment was a good Allay and Recompence for many harsh inconveniences that brake out when they were unruly and irregular Whereas when the Senate afterwards worm'd the People out of Power as that design went on by degrees so Rome lost her Liberty the Senate domineering over the People and particular Factions over the Senate till those Factions tearing one another to pieces at length he that was head of the paramount surviving Faction by name Caesar took occasion to usurp over all swallowing up the Rights and Liherties of the Romans in the Gulph of a single Tyranny It was a Noble saying though Machiavel's Not he that placeth-a vertuous Government in his own hands or family but he that establisheth a free and laâ—ting Form for the Peoples constant security is most to be commended Whosoever hath this oportunity may improve his actions to a greater height of glory than ever followed the fame of any ambitious Idol that hath grasâ—'d a Monarchy for as 〈◊〉 saith in Plutarch Even the greatest Kings or Tyrants refar inferiour to those that are emiâ—ent in Free-States and Commonwealths Nâ—r were those mighty Monarchs of old to be compared with Epimanoâ—das Pericles Themistocles Marcus Carius Amilcâ—r Fahius and Scipio and other excellent Captains in Free-States whiâ—h purchasâ—d themselves a fame in defence of their Liberties And though the very name of Liberty was for a time grown odious or ridiculous among us having been long a stranger in these and other parts yet in Ancient time Nations were wont to reckon themselves so much the more Noble as they were free from the Regal yoke which was the cause why then there were so many Free-States in all parts of the world Nor is it onely a meer Gallantry of spirit that excites men to the love of Freedom but experience assures it to be the most commodious and profitable way of Government conducing every way to the enlarging a people in Wealth and Dominion It is incredible to be spoken saith Salust how exceedingly the Romane Commonwealth increased in a short time after they had obtained Liberty And Gâ—icciardâ—ne affirms That Free-States must needs be more pleasing to God than any other Form because in them more regard is to be had to the common good more care for the impartial distribution of Justice and the mindes of men are more enflamed thereby to the love of Glory and Vertue and become much more zealous in the love of Religion than in any other Government whatsoever It is wonderful to consider how mightily the Athenians were augmented in a few yeâ—rs both in Wealth and Power after they had freed themselves from the Tyranny of Pistratus but the Romans arrived to such a height as was beyond all imagination after the expulsion of their Kings and Kingly Go ernment Nor do these things happen without special reason it being usual in Free-States to be more tender of the Publick in all their Decrees than of particular Interests whereas the case is otherwise in a Monarchy because in this Form the Princes pleasure weighs down all Considerations of the Common good And hence it is that a Nation hath no sooner lost its Liberty and stoop'd under the yoke of a single Tyrant but it immediately loseth its former lustre the Body fills with ill humors and may swell in Titles but cannot thrive either in Power or Riches according to that proportion which it formerly enjoyed because all new Acquisitions are appropriated as the Princes peculiar and in no wise conduce to the ease and benefit of the Publick It was the pride of Richard Nevil the great Earl of Warwick and he reckoned it the greatest of earthly glories to be called as indeed he was a King-maker in that he made and unmade Kings at his pleasure for we read in our Chronicles how that he first pull'd down the House of Lancaster and brought King Henry the sixth from a Crown to a Prison setting up the Title of the House of York in the person of King Edward the fourth afterwards he deposed this Edward drave him out of England and restored the same Henry to the Crown whom he had before depress'd But the great Query is Wherefore and how this was done One would have thought there had been no hope of reconciliation betwixt him and the House of Lancaster having so highly disobliged them in casting down and imprisoming the person of Henry But yet it is very observable of this man Warwick being on a sudden discontented with the change that he had made because he missed of those ends which he aimed at in bringing it about and perceived other persons whom he conceived his inferiours to partake of the interest and favour of Edward therefore out of an emulous impatience of Spirit he presently cast about to undo all that before he had done he supprest the new Government to advance the old From which piece of Story we may very well conclude how unsafe it is in a new alteration to trust any man with too great a share of Government or place of Trust for such persons stand ever ready like that Warwick upon any occasion of discontent or of serving their own Interests to betray and alter the Government especially if they have Warwick's main Guard that is if they can as he did bring the Prince whom they formerly disobliged to come in upon their own terms and upon such conditions as may bridle him and secure the Power so in their own Hands that whilst he King it onely in Title themselves may be Kings de facto and leave their old Friends in the lurcâ— or yeeld them up at Mâ—rcy as Warwick did to gratifie the Tyrant and their own Tyrannical ambition How much therefore doth it concern every Commonwealth in such a case
The EXCELLENCIE OF A Free-State OR The Right CONSTITUTION OF A Common-wealth WHEREIN All Objections are answered and the best way to secure the Peoples LIBERTIES discovered WITH Some Errors of Government AND Rules of Policie Published by a Well-wisher to Posterity London Printed for Thomas Brewster at the three Bibles neer the West-end of Pauls 1656. To the Reader TAking notice of late with what impudence and the more is the pity confidence the Enemies of this Commonwealth in their publick Writings and Discourses labour to undermine the dear-bought Liberties and Freedoms of the People in their declared Interest of a Free-State I thought it high time by counter-working them to crush the Cockatrice in the Egg that so it might never grow to be a Bird of prey in order thereto I have published this following Discourse to the World that so the Eyes of the People being opened they may see whether those high and ranting Discourses of personal Prerogative and unbounded Monarchy especially * Inspections One lately published by Mr. Howel that struts abroad with a brazen Face or a due and orderly succession of the Supreme Authority in the hands of the Peoples Representatives will best secure the Liberties and Freedoms of the People from the Incroachments and Usurpations of Tyranny and answer the true Ends of the late Wars This Treatise is not intended for a particular Answer to Mr. Howel's said Book but yet may obviate that part thereof which he calls Some Reflexes upon Government for his main design is not so much though that be part to asperse the long Parliament and so through their sides to wound all their Friends and Adherents as to lay a Foundation for absolute Tyranny upon an unbounded Monarchy and in order thereunto he advises his Highness to lay aside Parliaments or at best to make them Cyphers and to govern the Nation Vi Armis not â—ut of any Honour or respect he bears to his Person but to bring the old Interest and Family into more credit and esteem with the People His Principles and Precedents they are purely his own for I am confident that the most considerate part of those that did engage for the late King are so far from owning his Tenets that they would rather lay aside the Family and Interest of the Stuarts and declare for a Free-State than indure to be yoked and enslaved by such an absolute Tyranny as he pleads for My reason is this because most of the Nobility and Gentry of this Nation have fair Estates of their own free without any dependence upon the Crown and they would be as unwilling to render up their Estates and Posterities in the paw of the Lion as the Commoners themselves His Precedents are as false as his Principles are bad for proof hereof take one and that a main one for all he saith That until the Reign of Henry the first the Commons of England were not called to the Parliament at all or had so much as a Consent in the making of Laws To prove that this is false there is extant an old Latine Copy speaking of a Parliament in the Reign of King Ethelred which telleth us that in it were Universi Anglorum Optimates Ethelredi Regis Edicto convocata Plebis multitudine collectae Regis Edicto A Writ of Summons for all the Lords and for choice of the Commons a full and clear Parliament My Author saith The proofs of Parliaments in Canute's time are so many and so full that they tire us altogether His remarkable Letter from Rome recorded by the Monk of Malmsbury runs thus To the Arch-Bishops Bishops c. Primatibus toti Genti Anglorum tam Nobilibus quam Plebeis Hoveden is full in this also Cujus Edmundi post mortem Rex Canutus omnes Episcopos Duces nec non Principes cunctosque Optimates Gentis Angliae Lundoniae congregrari jussit Howel saith William the Conqueror first brought the word Parlament A clear summons of Parliament and the very name of Parliament is found saith my Author in his time in the old Book of Edmunds-Bury Rex Canutus Anno Regni 5. cunctos Regni sui Praelatos Proceresque ac Magnates and suum convocans Parliamentum And that it was a full Parliament we may believe from the persons we finde there at the Charter to that Monastery confirmed by Hardicanute but granted by Canute insuo Publico Parliamento praesistentibus personaliter in eodem Archi-Episcopis Episcopis Suffraganeis Ducibus Comitibus Abbatibus cum quam plurimis gregariis Militibus Knights of shires it seems cum Populi multitudine copiosa other Commons also Omnibus tum eodem Parliamento personaliter existentibus Edward the Confessor refers the repairing Mr. Howel would have his Highness lay a Sesment for the repairing of Pauls without consent of Parliament of Westminster to the Parliament at length cum totius Regni Electione they are his own words he sets upon the decayed Minster But they that would know more of the Customs and Constitutions of this Nation let them repair to those large Volumes that are so frequent in print upon that Subject especially that excellent Piece The Rights of the Kingdom This may suffice to prove that the Commons were called to Parliament long before Henry the first I believe none will be offended with this following Discourse but those that are Enemies to publick welfare let such be offended still it is not for their sakes that I publish this exsuing Treatise but for your sakes that have been noble Patriots fellow-Souldiers and Sufferers for the Liberties and Freedoms of your Country that Posterity in after-ages may have something to say and shew to if God shall permit any suceeding Tyrants wherefore their Fathers sacrificed their lives and all that was dear to them It was not to destroy Magistracy but to regulate it nor to confound Propriety but to inlarge it that the Prince as well as the People might be governed by Law that Justice might be impartially distributed without respect of persons that England might become a quiet Habitation for the Lion and the Lamb to lie down and fâ—ed together and that none might make the people afraid it was for these things they fought and died and that not as private persons neither but by the publick command and conduct of the Supreme Power of the Nation viz. the peoples Representatives in Parliament and nothing will satisfie far all the Blood and Treasure that hath been spilt and spent make England a glorious Commonwealth and stop the mouths of all gainsayers but a due and orderly succession of the Supreme Authority in the hands of the Peoples Representatives An INTRODUCTION TO THE Following Discourse WHen the Senators of Râ—me in their publike Decrees and Orations began to comply with and court the People calling them Lords of the world how easie a matter was it then for Gracchus to perswade them to un-Lord the Senate In like manner when Athens was
Therefore our Conclusion shall be this That since Kings and all standing Powers are so inclinable to act according to their own Wills and in Interests in making expounding and executing of Laws to the prejudice of the Peoples Liberty and Security and seeing the onely way to prevent Arbitrariness is That no Laws or Dominations whatsoever should be made but by the Peoples Consent and Election therefore it must of necessity be granted that the People are the best Keepers of their own Liberties being setled in a due and orderly succession of their supreme Assemblies A twelfth Reason is because this Form is most sutable to the Nature and Reason of Mankinde for as Cicero saith Man is a noble Creature born with Affections to rule rather than obey there being in every man a natural appetite or desire of Principality And therefore the Reason why one man is content to submit to the Government of another is not because he conceives himself to have less right than another to govern but either because he findes himself less able or else because he judgeth it will be more convenient for himself and that community whereof he is a Member if he submits unto another's Government Nemini purere vult animús a naturâ bene informatus nisi c. saith the same Cicero that is to say in honest English A minde well instructed by the light of Nature will pay obedience unto none but such as command direct or govern for its good and benefit From both which passages and expressions of that Oracle of Humane wisdom these three inferences do naturally arise First that by the light of Nature people are taught to be their own Carvers and Contrivers in the framing of that Government under which they mean to live Secondly that none are to preside in Government or sit at the Helm but such as shall be judged fit and chosen by the People Thirdly that the People are the onely proper Judges of the convenience or inconvenience of a Government when it is erected and of the behaviour of Governours after they are chosen which three Deductions appear to be no more but an Explanation of this most excellent Maxime That the Original and Fountain of all just Power and Government is in the People This being so that a Free-State-Government by the People that is by their successive Representatives or supreme Assemblies duely chosen is most natural and onely sutable to the Reason of mankinde then it follows that the other forms whether it be of a standing Power in the Hands of a particular person as a King or of a set number of Great Ones as in a Senate are besides the Dictates of Nature being meer artificial devices of Great Men squared out onely to serve the Ends and Interests of Avarice Pride and Ambition of a few to a vassalizing of the Community The Truth whereof appears so much the more if we consider That a Consent and free Election of the People which is the most natural Way and Form of governing hath no real effect in the other Forms but is either supplanted by Craft and Custome or swallowed up by a pernicious pretence of Right in one or many to govern onely by vertue of an Hereditary succession Now certainly were there no other Argument to prove the excellency of Government by the People c. beyond the other Forms yet this one might suffice That in the Peoples Form men have Liberty to make use of that Reason and Understanding God hath given them in chusing of Governours and providing for their own safety in Government but in the other Forms of a standing Power all Authority being entailed to certain Persons and Families in a course of inheritance men are alwayes deprived of the use of their Reason about choice of Governours and forced to receive them blindely and at all adventure which course being so destructive to the Reason common Interest and Majesty of that Noble Creature called Man that he should not in a matter of so high consequence as Government wherein the good and safety of all is concerned have a Freedom of Choice and Judgement must needs be the most irrational and brutish Principle in the World and fit onely to be hissed out of the World together with all Forms of standing Power whether in Kings or others which have served for no other end but transform Men into Beasts and mortified mankinde with misery through all Generations The Truth of this is evident all the World over first by sad Examples of Monarchy for the Kingly form having been retained in a course of Inheritance men being forced to take what comes next for a Governour whether it be Male or Female a wise Man or a Fool Good or Bad so that the major part of Hereditary Princes have been Tyrannous and Wicked by Nature or made so by Education and Opportunity the People have been for the most part banded to and fro with their Lives and Fortunes at the Will and Pleasure of some one single unworthy Fellow who usually assumes the greater confidence in his unrighteous dealing because he knows the People are tied in that Form to him and his though he practice all the Injustice in the World This was it that brought on Tyranny in Rome first under their Kings afterwards under Emperors for it is to be observed out of the Story that all those Emperors which ruled by right of Inheritance proved most of them no better than savage Beasts and all of them Wicked except Titus 'T is true indeed That a Nation may have some respite and recruit now and then by the Vertue and Valour of a single Prince yet this is very rare and when it doth happen it usually lasts no longer than for his Life because his Son or Successor for the most part proves more weak or vitious than himself was Virtuous as you may see in the several Lists of Kings throughout Great Britain France Spain and all the World But this is not all the Inconvenience that Hereditary Princes have been and are for the most part Wicked in their own Persons for as great Inconveniences happen by their being litigious in their Titles witness the bloody disputes between the Princes of the Blood in France as also in England between the two Houses of Yorke and Lancaster to which many more might be reckoned out of all other Kingdoms which miseries the people might have avoided had they not been tied to one particular Line of Succession Therefore if any Kingly Form be tolerable it must be that which is by Election chosen by the Peoples Representatives and made an Officer of Trust by them to whom they are to be accountable And herein as Kings are onely tolerable upon this account as Elective so these Elective Kings are as intolerable upon another account because their present Greatness gives them opportunity ever to practise such flights that in a short time the Government that they received onely for their own Lives will become entailed
absolute necessity to the safety and well-being of a Commonwealth Therefore this Objection is of as little weight as the rest so as in any wise to diminish the Dignity and Reputation of a Free-State or Government by the People in their successive Assemblies A sixth Objection against the Form of a Free-State or Government by the People is alleadged by many to this effect That People by nature are factious inconstant and ungrateful For answer first as to the point of being Factious we have already shewn that this Government stated in a succession of its Supreme Assemblies is the onely preventive of Faction because in creating a Faction there is a necessity that those which endeavour it must have oportunity to improve their slights and projects in disgnising their Designes drawing in Instruments and Parties and in worming out Opposites the effecting of all which requires some length of time which cannot be had and consequently no Faction form'd when Government is not fixed in particular persons but managed by due succession and revolution of Authority in the hands of the People Besides it is to be considered that the People are never the first or principal in Faction they are never the authors and contrivers of it but ever the parties that are drawn into Sidings by the influence of standing Powers to serve their interests and designes Thus Sylla and Marius Pompey and Caesar continuing power in their own hands cleft the Romane Empire at several times into several Parties as afterwards it was cleft into three by the Triumvirate wherein the people had no hand being as they are alwayes purely passive and passionately divided according as they were wrought upon by the subâ—il Insinuations of the prime Engineers of each Faction Thus Italy was divided into Guelph and Gibâ—llâ—ne and France torn in two by the two Families of Orleance and Burgundi also by the Guisians and their Confederates wherein the people had no further hand than as they were acted by the perswasions and pretences of two powerful parties The case also was the same in England in times past when the Grandee-Game was in action between the two Families of Yorke and Lancaster So that it is clear enough The people in their own nature are not inclined to be Factious nor are they ever ingaged that way farther than as their Nature is abused and drawn in by powerful persons The second particular of this Objection is Inconstancy which holds true indeed in them that are debauched and in the corrupted State of a Commonwealth when degenerated from its pure Principles as we finde in that of Athens Rome Florence and others but yet in Rome you may see as pregnant instances of that peoples constancy as of any other sort of men whatsoever for they continued constant irreconcilable Enemies to all Tyranny in general and Kingly power in particular In like manner when they had once gotten their successive Assemblies they remained so firm stiff to uphold them that the succeeding Tyrants could not in a long time nor without extraordinary cunning and caution deprive them of that onely Evidence of their Liberty Moreover it is observable of this people That in making their Elections they could never be perswaded to chuse a known Infamous Vitious or unworthy Fellow so that they seldom or never erred in the choice of their Tribunes and other Officers And as in the framing of Laws their aim was ever at the general Good it being their own Interest quatenus the people so their constancy in the conservation of those Laws was most remarkable for notwithstanding all the crafty Devices and Fetches of the Nobles the people could never be woo'd to a consent of abrogating any one Law till by the alteration of Time Affairs and other Circumstances it did plainly appear inconvenient But the case hath ever been otherwise under Kings and all standing Powers who usually ran into all the extreams of Inconstancy upon every new Project petty Humour and Occasion that seemed favourable for effecting of their by-designs And in order hereunto Stories will inform you That it hath been their Custome to shift Principles every Moon and cashier all Oaths Protestations Promises and Engagements and blot out the Memory of them with a wet Finger This was very remarkable in the late King whose inconstancy in this kinde was beyond compare who no sooner had passed any Promises made Vows and Protestations fix'd Appeals in the High Court of Heaven in the behalf of Himself and his Family but presently he forfeited all and cancell'd them by his Actions As to the third point of Ingratitude it is much charged upon this Form of Government because we read both in Athens and Rome of divers unhandsome Returns made to some worthy Persons that had done high services for those Commonwealths as Alcibiades Theâ—istocles Phocion Miltâ—ades Furius Camillus Coriolanus and both the Scipio's the cause of whose misfortunes is described by Plutarch and Livy to be their own lofty and unwary carriage Having say they by an ingrossment of power rendred themselves suspected and buthensome to the Common-wealth and thereby stirred up the peoples fear jealousie where as if they had kept themselves within the Rules of a Free-State by permitting a disceet Revolution of power in particular hands there had been no occasion of incroachment on the one part nor of fear on the other Of all the Scipio's indeed were most to be pitied because their only fault seems to be too much power and grearness which indeed is the greatest fault that Members of a Commonwealth can be guilty of if seriously considered insomuch that being grown formidable to their Fellow-Senators they were by them removed and so it appears to have been the act of the Nobles upon their own score and Interest and not of the people But as for Camillus and Coriolanus they sufficiently deserved whatsoever befel them because they made use of the power and reputation they had gotten by their former merits onely to maligne and exercise an implacable hate towards the peoples Interest Nevertheless the people restored Camillus again to his Estate and Honour after some little time of Banishment And though this accident in a Free-State hath been objected by many as a great deffect yet others again do highly commend the humour For say they it is not onely a good sign of a Commonwealths being in pure and perfect health when the people are thus active zealous and jealous in the behalf of their Liberties that will permit no such growth of power as may endanger it but it is also a convenient means to curb the Ambition of its Citizens and make them contain within due bounds when they see there is no presuming after Inlargements and Accessions of Powers and Greatness without incurring the danger and indignation of the people Thus much of the Reason why the people many times cast off persons that have done them eminent services yet on the other side they were so far from Ingratitude
of State that made Saul to spare Agag and plot the ruine of David It was Reason of State that made Jeroboam to set up Calves in Dan and Bethel It was Reason of State and a shrew'd one too when Achitophel caused Absalom to defile his Fathers Concubines in the sight of all Israel You know what end they both came to It was the same that caused Abner first to take part with the house of Saul and that caused Joab to kil him after he came to be his Rival in Fame and the Favour of David their Ends were both bloudy Hence it was that Solomon having pardoned Adonijah thought fit afterwards to put him to death upon a very slender occasion And Jehu though he had Warrant from God to destroy all the house of Ahab his Master yet because in the Execution of it he mingled Reason of State in relation to his own Interest and minded the Establishment of himself thereby more than the Command and Honour of God in the Execution of Justice therefore God cursed him for his pains threatning by the mouth of the Prophet Hosea to avenge the bloud of Ahabs family upon the house of Jehu It was Reason of State that moved Herod to endeavour the destruction of Christ as soon as he was born It was Reason of State in the Jewes lest the Romans should come and take away their Place and Nation and in Pilate lest he should be thought no friend to Caesar that made them both joyn in crucifying the Lord of Glory and incur that heavy Curse which at length fell upon the Jewish Place and Nation It is Reason of State that makes the Pope and the Cardinals stick so close one to another and binds them and the Monarchs of Christendom in one common Interest for the greatning of themselves and the inslaving of the People for which a sad destruction doth attend them It was Reason of State that destroyed so many millions of men forboth in the Holy War that so Princes might not have time to take notice of the Popes Usurpation nor the People leisure and opportunity to call their Princes to an account for their unbounded Tyranny It was Reason of State that was pleaded in behalf of Borgia to justifie all his Villanies in wading through so much bloud and mischief to a Principality in Italy but he escaped not to enjoy the fruit of all his labour It was the same Devil that made Henry the 4 of France to renounce his Religion and turn Papist to secure himself from Popish Reveng but God purâ—sht him and sent a Popish Dagger through his heart It made Richard the Third in England to butcher his own Nephew for which vengeance pursued him being at last tied a thwart a horse back naked and bloudy like a Calf of the Shambles It made Henry the 7 to extinguish the Line of Plantagâ—nâ—t and his Son after him not onely to dabble his hands in the bloud of many but to persecute the Protestants not withstanding that he fell heavy also upon the Papists It made his Daughter Mary to fill up the measure of her Fathers iniquities as they could not be expiated by the vertues of her sister and Successor whose onely faâ—â—â— was in following Reason of State so far as to serve the Interest of Monarchy above that of Religion by upholding an Order of Prelacy so that in her the direct Line of that Family ended After this it was wicked Reason of State that continued Monarchy and brought in a Scotch-man upon us This was James who was so great an Admirer of Reason of State that he adopted it for its own Darling by the name of King-craft and his Motto No Bishop no King shewed that he prefer'd Reason of State before the Interest of Religion as in other things before honesty witness among many other his quitting the Cause of God and the Patatinate to keep fair with the house of Austria for which and for the same Reason of State put in practice by his Son Charles for the ruine of Religion and Liberty by a bloudly war the whole Family hath been brought to â—ad destruction These Examples are sufficient to shew that Reason of State prefer'd before the Rule of Honesty is an Errour in Policy with a vengeance as they that will not believe shall be sure to feel iâ— since it brings unavoidable Ruine not onely to particular persons but upon whole Families and Nations A fifth Errour in Policy hath been this viz. a permitting of the Legislative and Executive Powers of a State to rest in one and the same hands and persons By the Legislative Power we understand the Power of making altering or repealing Laws which in all well-ordered Governments hath ever been lodged in a succession of the supream Councels of Assemblies of a Nation By the Executive Power we mean that Power which is derived from the other and by their Authority transfer'd into the hand or hands of one Person called a Prince or into the hands of many called States for the administration of Government in the Execution of those Laws In the keeping of these two Powers distinct flowing in distinct Channels so that they may never meet in one save upon some short extraordinary occasion consists the safety of a State The Reason is evident because if the Law-makers who ever have the Supream Power should be also the constant Administrators and Dispencers of Law and Justice then by confequence the People would be left without Remedy in case of Injustice since no Appeal can lie under Heaven against such as have the Supremacy which if once admitted were inconsistent with the very intent and natural import of true Policy which ever supposeth that men in Power may be unrighteous and therefore presuming the worst points alwayes in all determinations at the Enormities and Remedies of Government on the behalf of the People For the clearing of this it is worthy your observation that in all Kingdomes and States whatsoever where they have had any thing of Freedom among them the Legislative and Executive Powers have been managed in distinct hands That is to say the Law-makers have set down Laws as Rules of Government and then put Power into the hands of others not their own to govern by those Rules by which means the people were happy having no Governours but such as were liable to give an account of Government to the supream Councel of Law-Makers And on the other side it is no less worthy of a very serious observation That Kings and standing States never became absolute over the People till they brought both the making and execution of Lawes into their own hands and as this Usurpation of theirs took place by degrees so unlimited Arbitrary Power crept up into the Throne there to domineet o're the World and defie the Liberties of the People Cicero in his second Book de Offic. and his third de Legibus speaking of the first institution of Kings tells us how they were at
length they have been their own executioners and ruined one another And had it been only the destruction of themselves the matter were not considerable but the people having by this means been torn with Civill dissentions and the miseries of War by being drawn into Parties according to their severall humors and affections the usuall event ever was that in the end they have been seized as the prey of some single Tyrant An example of this there was in the State of Athens under the Government of those thirty men who usurped the power into their own hands and were afterwards called the thirty Tyrants for their odious behaviour for Xenophon tells us that they drew the determinations of all things into their own Closets but seemed to manage them calculis suffragiis Plebis by the Votes of the people which they had brought to their own devotion in the Assembly to countenance their proceedings And their custom was if any sort of men complained and murmured at their doings or appeared for the Publique immediately to snap them off by the losse of life or fortune under a pretence of being seditions and turbulent fellows against the peace of their Tyranny These Juncto-men had not been many moneths in possession but they began to quarrel with one another and the reason why the game went not on against one another was because the people took it out of their hands and diverted the course of their spleen against each other into a care of mutuall defence they being assaulted on every side by popular arme and clamors for the recovery of liberty So you see the event of these thirty mens combination was no lesse then a civill War and it ended in their banishment But as great a mischief followed for a new Junto of ten men got into their places whose Government proving little lesse odious than the 〈◊〉 gave an occasion to new changes which never left shifting till at last they fell into a single Tyranny And the wilder sort of people having by a sad experience felt the fruits of their own error in following the lusts and parties of particular powerful persons grew wise and combining with the honester sort they all as one man set their shoulders to the work and restored the primitive Majesty and Authority of their supreme Assemblies Herodotus in his second Book tells us that Monarchy being abolished in Egypt after the death of King Setho and a Declaration published for the freedom of the people immediately the Administration of all Affaires was ingross't in the hands of twelve Grandees who having made themselves secure against the people in a few years fell to quarrelling with one another as the manner is about their share in the Government This drew the people into severall parties and so a civill Warre ensued wherein Psummeticus one of the twelve having slain all his Partners left the people in the lurch and instead of a free State seated himself in the possession of a single Tyranny But of all old instances the most famous are the two Triumvirates that were in Rome The first was that of Pompâ—y Caesar and Crassus who having drawn the affairs of the Empire and the whole World into their own particular hands acting and determining all in a private â— unto of their own without the advice or consent of the Senate and people unless it were now and then to make stalking horses of them for the more clearly conveyance of some unpleasing design These men having made an agreement among themselves that nothing should be done in the Common-wealth but what pleased their own humor it was not long ere the spirit of Ambition set them flying at the faces of one another and drew the whole World upon the Stage to act that bloody Tragedy whose Caâ—astrophe was the death of Pompey and the Dominion of Caesar The second Trimuvirate was erected after the fatall stab given to Caesar in the Senate between Octavius afterwards Emperor by the name of Augustus Lopidus and Antony these having drawn all Affairs into their own hands and shared the World between them presently fell abandying against one another Augustus picking a quarrell with Lepidus gave him a lift out of his Authority and confined him to a close imprisonment in the City This being done first he had the more hope and opportunity next for the outing of Anthony he picks a quarrel with him too begins a new civill Warre wherein Rome and a great part of the World was engaged to serve his ambition and things being brought to the decision of a Battell and the ruine of Anthony he afterwards seated and secured himself in the injoyment of a single Tyranny Omitting many other instances here in England it is worthy observation that in the great contest between Henry the third and the Barons about the liberties of themselves and the people the King being forced at length to yield the Lords instead of freeing the Nation indeed ingrossed all power into their own hands under the name of the Twenty-foure Conservators of the Kingdom and behaved themselves like totidem Tyranny so many Tyrants acting all in their own Names and in 〈◊〉 of their own wholly neglecting or else over-ruling Parliaments But then not agreeing among themselves there were three or four of them defeated the other twenty and drew the intire management of Affairs into their own hands viz. the Earles of Leicester Gloucester Hereford and Spencer yet it continued so not long for Leicester getting all into his own power fell at enmity with Gloucester and was defeated by him At length Leicester putting his Fortune to a Battel was slain and the King thereupon getting all power back again took advantage of that opportunity for the greatning of himself and Prerogative And so you see All that the people got by the effusion of their bloud and loss of their peace was That instead of one Tyrant they had Twenty Four and then Four and after them a single Usurper which was Monfort Earl of Leicester and he being gone they were forced to serve their old Tyrant Henry the Third again who by this means became the more secure and firm in his Tyranny wherein if they had dealt like men of honour and made the Nation as free as they pretended not ingrossing all into their own private hands but instating the liberty of England Paramount above the regall prerogative in a due and constant course of successive Parliaments without which liberty is but a meere name and shadow then all the succeeding inconveniences had been surely prevented the bloody bickering afterwards might have been avoided their own persons and honors preserved Kings either cashiered or regulated as they ought to have been and the whole Nation freed from those after-gripes and paâ—gs inflicted by that Henry and his corrupt Line of successors The World affords many instances of this kinde but these are sufficient to manifest the fatall consequences that have happened in permitting publick 〈◊〉 and interests to be ingrossed
not onely advised but inclined to the latter then it concernes any Nation or people to secure themselves and keep Great men from degenerating into beasts by holding up of law liberty priviledge birth-right elective power against the ignoble beastly way of powerfull domination If of all beasts a Prince should some times resemble the Lyon and somtimes the Fox then people ought to observe great ones in both the disguises and be sure to cage the Lyon and unkennel the Fox and never leave till they have stript the one and unrais'd the other If a Prince cannot and ought not to keep his faith given when the observance thereof turnes to disadvantage and the occasions that made him promise are past then it is the Interest of the people never to trust any Princes nor ingagements and promises of men in power but ever to preserve a power within themselves either to reject them or to hold them to the performance whether they will or no. And if Princes shall never want occasions to give colour to this breach then also it concernes the people ever to make sure of the Instance and not suffer themselves to be deluded with colours shadows and meere pretences Lastly if it be necessarie for great ones to fain and dissemble throughly because men are so simple and yield so much to the present necessity as Machivel saith and in regard he that hath a mind to deceive shall alwayes finde another that will be deceived then it concerns any people or Nation to make a narrow search ever into the men and their pretences and necessities whether they be fained or not and if they discover any deceipt hath been used then they deserve to be slaves that will be deceived any longer Thus I have noted the prime Errors of Government and Rules of Policy I shall now conclude with a word of Advice in order to the chusing of the Supreme Assemblies Since it appears that the right liberty welfare and safety of a people consists in a due succession of their supreme Assemblies surely then the right constitution and orderly motion of them is of the greatest consequence that can be there being so much imbarqued in this Vessel that if it should miscarry all is irreparably lost unless it can be recovered again out of the Sea of confusion Therefore as at all times there ought to be an especiall care had to the Composure and Complexion of those great Assemblies so much more after the confusion of a Civil Warre where it is ever to be supposed there will be many discontented humours a working and labouring to insinuate themselves into the body of the people to undermine the settlement and security of the Common-wealth that by gaining an interest and share with the better sort in the supreme Authority they may attain those corrupt ends of Policy which were lost by Power In this case without question there are severall men that ought to be taken into a strict consideration There is the old Malignant and the new against whom not only the doores are to be shut but every hole and cranny ought to be stopt for fear they creep into Authority There is likewise a came Beast more dangerous than the other two which is that Amphibious animal the neutrall of Laodicea that can live in either Element sail with any winde on every point of the compasse and strike in with Malignants of every sort upon any occasion This is he that will undoe all if he be not avoided for in the form of an Angel of Light he most slightly carries on the works of darkness Let not him then as to our present case be so much as named upon an Election Thus much for the Constitution of the supreme Assembly or the manner of setling Authority upon the close of a Civil Warre for the recovery of Liberty What remains then but that upon due caution for excluding the wilde Geese and the came the Malignant and the Neutrall such a people may reasonably be put into possession of their right and interest in the Legislative power and of all injoyment of it in a succession of their supreme Assemblies The onely way to preserve liberty in the hands of a people that have gained it by the Sword is to put it in the peoples hands that is into the hands of such as by a contribution of their purses strength and counsells have all along asserted it without the least stain of corruption staggeringâ— apostasie for in this case these only are to be reckoned the people the rest having either by a trayterous Engagement Compliance Neutrality or Apostasie as much as in them lies destroyed the people and by consequence made a forteiture of all their Rights and immunities as Members of a people In this case therefore men ought to have a courage and to have a care of the course of Election and trust God with the success of a righteous Action for nothing can be more righteous and necessary than that a people should be put into possession of their native right and freedom However they may abuse it it is their right to have it and the want of it is a greater inconvenience and drawes greater inconveniencies after it than any can be pretended to arise from the injoyment though they were presented in a multiplying glasse to the eyes of discerning men But now as this holds true at all times in all Nations upon the like occasions of Liberty newly purchased so much more in any Nation where freedom in a successive course of the peoples Assemblies hath once beeâ— solemnly acknowledged and declared to be the interest of the Commonwealth for then a depriving the people of their due is a foundation for broils and divisions and as Cicero defines faction to be a deviation from the declared interest of State so in this case if it happen that any shall desert a Common-wealth in its declared Interest they immediately lose the name and honour of Patriots and become Parties in a Faction FINIS There is lately Printed these Bookes and sold by Tho. Brewster at the Three Bibles by Pauls viz. THE Retired Mans Meditations or the Mystery and Power of Godliness shining forth in the Living Word to the unmasking the Mystery of Iniquity in the most refined and purest Formes And withal representing to view 1 The Riches and Fulnesse of Christs Person as Mediator 2. The Naturall and Spiritual Man in their proper distinctions 3. The Raign and Kingdom of Christ in the Nature Limits and extent thereof By Henry Vane Knight A Breviary of the History of the Parliament of England in Three Parts First the Cause and Beginning of the Civil Warres of ENGLAND Secondly A short mention of the progress of that Civill Warre Thirdly a Compendious Relation of the Originall and Progress of the Second Civil Warre written by T. May Esq Lazarus and His Sisters Discourse of Paradice Or A Conference about the excellent things of the other World