The Paternal Right devolves to and is inherited by all the Children THO the perversity of our Author's Judgment and Nature may have driven him into the most gross Errors 't is not amiss to observe that many of those delivered by him proceed from his ignorance of the most important Differences between Father and Lord King and Tyrant which are so evident and irreconcilable that one would have thought no man could be so stupid as not to see it impossible for one and the same man at the same time to be Father and Master King and Tyrant over the same Persons But lest he should think me too scrupulous or too strict in inquiring after Truth I intend for the present to wave that inquiry and to seek what was good for Adam or Noah What we have reason to believe they desired to transmit to their Posterity and to take it for a perpetual Law in its utmost extent which I think will be of no advantage to our Author for this Authority which was universal during their lives must necessarily after their decease be divided as an Inheritance into as many parcels as they had Children The Apostle says If Children then Heirs Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ which alluding to the Laws and Customs of Nations could have bin of no force unless it had bin true and known to be so But if Children are Heirs or joint Heirs whatsoever Authority Adam or Noah had is inherited by every man in the world and that title of Heir which our Author so much magnifies as if it were annexed to one single person vanishes into nothing or else the words of the Apostle could have neither strength nor truth in them but would be built upon a false Foundation which may perhaps agree with our Author's Divinity Yet if the Apostle had not declared himself so fully in this Point we might easily have seen that Adam and Noah did leave their Children in that equality for Fathers are ever understood to embrace all their Children with equal Affection till the discovery of personal Vertues or Vices make a difference But the personal Vertues that give a reasonable preference of one before another or make him more fit to govern than the others cannot appear before he is nor can be annexed to any one Line Therefore the Father cannot be thought to have given to one Man or his Descendents the Government of his Brethren and their Descendents Besides tho the Law of England may make one man to be sole Heir of his Father yet the Laws of God and Nature do not so All the Children of Noah were his Heirs The Land promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob was equally divided among their Children If the Children of Joseph made two Tribes it was not as the first born but by the Will of Jacob who adopted Ephraim and Manasseh and they thereby became his Sons and obtained an Inheritance equal to that of the other Tribes The Law allowed a double Portion to the first-begotten but this made a difference between Brothers only in proportion whereas that between Lord and Servant is in specie not in degree And if our Author's Opinion might take place instead of such a division of the common Inheritance between Brothers as was made between the Children of Jacob all must continue for ever Slaves to one Lord which would establish a difference in specie between Brethren which Nature abhors If Nature dos not make one man Lord over his Brethren he can never come to be their Lord unless they make him so or he subdue them If he subdue them it is an act of Violence contrary to Right which may consequently be recovered If they make him Lord 't is for their own sakes not for his and he must seek their good not his own lest as Aristotle says he degenerate from a King into a Tyrant He therefore who would perswade us that the Dominion over every Nation dos naturally belong to one Man Woman or Child at a venture or to the Heir whatsoever he or she be as to Age Sex or other Qualifications must prove it good for all Nations to be under them But as Reason is our Nature that can never be natural to us that is not rational Reason gives Paria paribus equal Power to those who have equal Abilities and Merit It allots to every one the part he is most fit to perform and this fitness must be equally lasting with the Law that allots it But as it can never be good for great Nations having men amongst them of Vertue Experience Wisdom and Goodness to be governed by Children Fools or vicious and wicked Persons and we neither find that the Vertues required in such as deserve to govern them did ever continue in any race of men nor have reason to believe they ever will it can never be reasonable to annex the Dominion of a Nation to any one Line We may take this upon Solomon's word Wo to thee O Land when thy King is a Child and thy Princes eat in the morning And I wish the experience of all Ages did not make this Truth too evident to us This therefore can never be the Work much less the Law of Nature and if there be any such thing in the world as the Dominion over a Nation inseparably united to a Man and his Family it can have no other Root than a civil or municipal Law which is not the subject of our Discourse Moreover every Father's Right must cease when he ceases to be or be transmitted to those who being also Fathers have the same Title to it And tho the contrary method of annexing the whole Inheritance to one Person or exposing all his Brethren to be destroyed by his rage if they will not submit may conduce to the enlargement of a proud and violent Empire as in Turky where he that gains the Power usually begins his Reign with the slaughter of his Brothers and Nephews yet it can never agree with the piety gentleness and wisdom of the Patriarchs or the Laws of God and Nature These things being agreed we need not trouble our selves with the Limits or Definition of a Family and as little with the Titles given to the Head of it 'T is all one to us whether it be confined to one Roof and Fire or extended farther and none but such as are strangers to the practice of mankind can think that titles of Civility have a power to create a right of Dominion Every man in Latin is called Dominus unless such as are of the vilest condition or in a great subjection to those who speak to them and yet the word strictly taken relates only to Servus for a Man is Lord only of his Servant or Slave The Italians are not less liberal of the Titles of Signore and Padrone and the Spaniards of Sennor but he would be ridiculous in those Countries who thereupon should arrogate to himself a right of Dominion over those who
to them On the other hand the poverty and simplicity of the Spartan Kings was no less safe and profitable to the People than truly glorious to them Agesilaus denied that Artaxerxes was greater than he unless he were more temperate or more valiant and he made good his words so well that without any other assistance than what his Wisdom and Valour did afford he struck such a terror into that great rich powerful and absolute Monarch that he did not think himself safe in Babylon or Ecbatane till the poor Spartan was by a Captain of as great valour and greater poverty obliged to return from Asia to the defence of his own Country This was not peculiar to the severe Laconic Discipline When the Roman Kings were expelled a few Carts were prepared to transport their goods and their Lands which were consecrated to Mars and now go under the name of Campus Martius hardly contain ten Acres of ground Nay the Kings of Israel who led such vast Armies into the field that is were followed by all the people who were able to bear Arms seem to have possessed little Ahab one of the most powerful was so fond of Naboth's Vineyard which being the Inheritance of his Fathers according to their equal division of Lands could not be above two Acres that he grew sick when it was refused But if an allowance be to be made to every King it must be either according to a universal Rule or Standard or must depend upon the Judgment of Nations If the first they who have it may do well to produce it if the other every Nation proceeding according to the measure of their own discretion is free from blame It may also be worth observation whether the Revenue given to a King be in such manner committed to his care that he is obliged to employ it for the publick Service without the power of Alienation or whether it be granted as a Propriety to be spent as he thinks fit When some of the antient Jews and Christians scrupled the paiment of Tribute to the Emperors the reasons alledged to perswade them to a compliance seem to be grounded upon a supposition of the first for said they the defence of the State lies upon them which cannot be perform'd without Armies and Garisons these cannot be maintained without pay nor mony raised to pay them without Tributes and Customs This carries a face of reason with it especially in those Countries which are perpetually or frequently subject to Invasions but this will not content our Author He speaks of employing the revenue in keeping his House and looks upon it as a propriety to be spent as he thinks convenient which is no less than to cast it into a Pit of which no man ever knew the bottom That which is given one day is squandred away the next The people is always oppress'd with Impositions to foment the Vices of the Court These daily increasing they grow insatiable and the miserable Nations are compelled to hard labour in order to satiate those Lusts that tend to their own ruin It may be consider'd that the virtuous Pagans by the light of Nature discovered the truth of this Poverty grew odious in Rome when great men by desiring Riches put a value upon them and introduced that pomp and luxury which could not be born by men of small Fortunes From thence all furies and mischiefs seem'd to break loose The base slavish and so often subdued Asia by the basest of men revenged the defeats they had received from the bravest and by infusing into them a delight in pomp and luxury in a short time rendred the strongest and bravest of Nations the weakest and basest I wish our own experience did not too plainly manifest that these Evils were never more prevalent than in our days when the luxury majestick pomp and absolute power of a neighbouring King must be supported by an abundance of Riches torn out of the bowels of his Subjects which renders them in the best Country of the World and at a time when the Crown most flourishes the poorest and most miserable of all the Nations under the Sun We too well know who are most apt to learn from them and by what means and steps they endeavour to lead us into the like misery But the Bird is safe when the Snare is discover'd and if we are not abandoned by God to destruction we shall never be brought to consent to the settling of that Pomp which is against the practice of all virtuous people and has brought all the Nations that have bin taken with it into the ruin that is intended for us S E C T. VII When the Israelites asked for such a King as the Nations about them had they asked for a Tyrant tho they did not call him so NOW that Saul was no Tyrant says our Author note that the people asked a King as all Nations had God answers and bids Samuel to hear the voice of the People in all things which they spake and appoint them a King They did not ask a Tyrant and to give them a Tyrant when they asked a King had not bin to hear their voice in all things but rather when they asked an Egg to have given them a Scorpion unless we will say that all Nations had Tyrants But before he drew such a Conclusion he should have observed that God did not give them a Scorpion when they asked an Egg but told them that was a Scorpion which they called an Egg They would have a King to judg them to go out before them and to fight their Battels but God in effect told them he would overthrow all Justice and turn the Power that was given him to the ruin of them and their Posterity But since they would have it so he commanded Samuel to hearken to their Voice and for the punishment of their sin and folly to give them such a King as they asked that is one who would turn to his own profit and their misery the Power with which he should be entrusted and this truly denominates a Tyrant Aristotle makes no other distinction between a King and a Tyrant than that the King governs for the good of the People the Tyrant for his own pleasure or profit and they who asked such a one asked a Tyrant tho they called him a King This is all could be done in their Language for as they who are skilled in the Oriental Tongues assure me there is no name for a Tyrant in any of them or any other way of expressing the thing than by circumlocution and adding proud insolent lustful cruel violent or the like Epithets to the word Lord or King They did in effect ask a Tyrant They would not have such a King as God had ordain'd but such a one as the Nations had Not that all Nations had Tyrants but those who were round about them of whom they had knowledg and which in their manner of speaking went under the name
no Power but what is given by the Laws If this be not the case I desire to know who made the Laws to which they and their Predecessors have sworn and whether they can according to their own will abrogate those antient Laws by which they are made to be what they are and by which we enjoy what we have or whether they can make new Laws by their own Power If no man but our Author have impudence enough to assert any such thing and if all the Kings we ever had except Richard the second did renounce it we may conclude that Austin's words have no relation to our dispute and that 't were to no purpose to examine whether the Fathers mention any reservation of Power to the Laws of the Land or to the People it being as lawful for all Nations if they think fit to frame Governments different from those that were then in being as to build Bastions Halfmoons Hornworks Ravelins or Counterscarps or to make use of Muskets Cannon Mortars Carabines or Pistols which were unknown to them What Solomon says of the Hebrew Kings dos as little concern us We have already proved their Power not to have bin absolute tho greater than that which the Law allows to ours It might upon occasion be a prudent advice to private persons living under such Governments as were usual in the Eastern Countries to keep the King's Commandments and not to say What dost thou because where the Word of a King is there is Power and all that he pleaseth he will do But all these words are not his and those that are must not be taken in a general sense for tho his Son was a King yet in his words there was no power He could not do what he pleased nor hinder others from doing what they pleased He would have added weight to the Yoak that lay upon the necks of the Israelites but he could not and we do not find him to have bin master of much more than his own Tongue to speak as many foolish things as he pleased In other things whether he had to deal with his own people or with strangers he was weak and impotent and the wretches who flatter'd him in his follies could be of no help to him The like has befallen many others Those who are wise virtuous valiant just and lovers of their People have and ought to have Power but such as are lewd vicious foolish and haters of their People ought to have none and are often deprived of all This was well known to Solomon who says That a wise Child is better than an old and foolish King that will not be advised When Nabuchodonosor set himself in the place of God his Kingdom was taken from him and he was driven from the society of men to herd with beasts There was Power for a time in the word of Nero he murdered many excellent men but he was call'd to account and the World abandon'd the Monster it had too long endur'd He found none to defend him nor any better help when he desir'd to die than the hand of a Slave Besides this some Kings by their Institution have little Power some have bin deprived of what they had for abusing or rendring themselves unworthy of it and Histories afford us innumerable examples of both sorts But tho I should confess that there is always Power in the word of a King it would be nothing to us who dispute concerning Right and have no regard to that Power which is void of it A Thief or a Pyrat may have Power but that avails him not when as often befel the Cesars he meets with one who has more and is always unsafe since having no effect upon the Consciences of men every one may destroy him that can And I leave it to Kings to consider how much they stand obliged to those who placing their Rights upon the same foot expose their Persons to the same dangers But if Kings desire that in their Word there should be power let them take care that it be always accompanied with Truth and Justice Let them seek the good of their People and the hands of all good men will be with them Let them not exalt themselves insolently and every one will desire to exalt them Let them acknowledg themselves to be the Servants of the Publick and all men will be theirs Let such as are most addicted to them talk no more of Cesars nor the Tributes due to them We have nothing to do with the name of Cesar. They who at this day live under it reject the Prerogatives antiently usurped by those that had it and are govern'd by no other Laws than their own We know no Law to which we owe obedience but that of God and our selves Asiatick Slaves usually pay such Tributes as are imposed upon them and whilst braver Nations lay under the Roman Tyranny they were forced to submit to the same burdens But even those Tributes were paid for maintaining Armies Fleets and Garisons without which the poor and abject life they led could not have bin preserved We owe none but what we freely give None is or can be imposed upon us unless by our selves We measure our Grants according to our own Will or the present occasions for our own safety Our Ancestors were born free and as the best provision they could make for us they left us that Liberty intire with the best Laws they could devise to defend it 'T is no way impair'd by the Opinions of the Fathers The words of Solomon do rather confirm it The happiness of those who enjoy the like and the shameful misery they lie under who have suffer'd themselves to be forced or cheated out of it may perswade and the justice of the Cause encourage us to think nothing too dear to be hazarded in the defence of it SECT IX Our own Laws confirm to us the enjoyment of our native Rights IF that which our Author calls Divinity did reach the things in dispute between us or that the Opinions of the Fathers which he alledges related to them he might have spared the pains of examining our Laws for a municipal Sanction were of little force to confirm a perpetual and universal Law given by God to mankind and of no value against it since man cannot abrogate what God hath instituted nor one Nation free it self from a Law that is given to all But having abused the Scriptures and the Writings of the Fathers whose Opinions are to be valued only so far as they rightly interpret them he seems desirous to try whether he can as well put a false sense upon our Law and has fully compassed his design Aocording to his custom he takes pieces of passages from good Books and turns them directly against the plain meaning of the Authors expressed in the whole scope and design of their Writings To show that he intends to spare none he is not ashamed to cite Bracton who of all our antient Law-writers is
described to be so by the Scriptures and to give another name to those who endeavour to advance their own glory contrary to the precept of God and the interest of mankind But unless the light of reason had bin extinguished in him he might have seen that tho no Law could be made without a supreme Power that Supremacy may be in a body consisting of many men and several orders of men If it be true which perhaps may be doubted that there have bin in the world simple Monarchies Aristocracies or Democracies legally established 't is certain that the most part of the Governments of the world and I think all that are or have bin good were mixed Part of the Power has bin confer'd upon the King or the Magistrate that represented him and part upon the Senate and People as has bin proved in relation to the Governments of the Hebrews Spartans Romans Venetians Germans and all those who live under that which is usually called the Gothic Polity If the single person participating of this divided Power dislike either the Name he bears or the Authority he has he may renounce it but no reason can be from thence drawn to the prejudice of Nations who give so much as they think consistent with their own good and reserve the rest to themselves or to such other Officers as they please to establish No man will deny that several Nations have had a right of giving power to Consuls Dictators Archons Suffetes Dukes and other Magistrates in such proportions as seemed most conducing to their own good and there must be a right in every Nation of allotting to Kings so much as they please as well as to the others unless there be a charm in the word King or in the Letters that compose it But this cannot be for there is no similitude between King Rex and Bazileus they must therefore have a right of regulating the Power of Kings as well as that of Consuls or Dictators and it had not bin more ridiculous in Fabius Scipio Camillus or Cincinnatus to assert an absolute power in himself under pretence of advancing his sovereign Majesty against the Law than for any King to do the like But as all Nations give what form they please to their Government they are also judges of the name to be imposed upon each man who is to have a part in the power and 't is as lawful for us to call him King who has a limited Authority amongst us as for the Medes or Arabs to give the same name to one who is more absolute If this be not admitted we are content to speak improperly but utterly deny that when we give the name we give any thing more than we please and had rather his Majesty should change his name than to renounce our own Rights and Liberties which he is to preserve and which we have received from God and Nature But that the folly and wickedness of our Author may not be capable of any farther aggravation he says That is skills not how he come by the power Violence therefore or fraud treachery or murder are as good as Election Donation or legal Succession 'T is in vain to examine the Laws of God or Man the rights of nature whether Children do inherit the Dignities and Magistracies of their Fathers as patrimonial Lands and Goods whether regard ought to be had to the fitness of the Person whether all should go to one or be divided amongst them or by what rule we may know who is the right Heir to the Succession and consequently what we are in conscience obliged to do Our Author tells us in short it matters not how he that has the power comes by it It has bin hitherto thought that to kill a King especially a good King was a most abominable action They who did it were thought to be incited by the worst of passions that can enter into the hearts of men and the severest punishments have bin invented to deter them from such attempts or to avenge their death upon those who should accomplish it but if our Author may be credited it must be the most commendable and glorious act that can be performed by man for besides the outward advantages that men so earnestly desire he that dos it is presently invested with the Sovereign Majesty and at the same time becomes God's Vicegerent and the father of his Country possessed of that Government which in exclusion to all other forms is only favoured by the Laws of God and Nature The only inconvenience is that all depends upon success and he that is to be the Minister of God and father of his Country if he succeed is the worst of all villains if he fail and at the best may be deprived of all by the same means he employ'd to gain it Tho a Prince should have the wisdom and virtues of Moses the valour of Joshua David and the Maccabees with the gentleness and integrity of Samuel the most foolish vitious base and detestable man in the world that kills him and seizes the power becomes his Heir and father of the People that he govern'd it skills not how he did it whether in open battel or by secret treachery in the field or in the bed by poison or by the sword The vilest slave in Israel had become the Lord 's anointed if he could have kill'd David or Solomon and found villains to place him in the Throne If this be right the world has to this day lived in darkness and the actions which have bin thought to be the most detestable are the most commendable and glorious But not troubling my self at present to decide this question I leave it to Kings to consider how much they are beholden to Filmer and his disciples who set such a price upon their heads as would render it hard to preserve their Lives one day if the Doctrines were received which they endeavour to infuse into the minds of the People and concluding this point only say that we in England know no other King than he who is so by Law nor any power in that King except that which he has by Law and tho the Roman Empire was held by the power of the Sword and Ulpian a corrupt Lawyer undertakes to say that the Prince is not obliged by the Laws yet Theodosius confessed that it was the glory of a good Emperor to acknowledg himself bound by them SECT XXII The rigour of the Law is to be temper'd by men of known integrity and judgment and not by the Prince who may be ignorant or vicious OUR Author's next shift is to place the King above the Law that he may mitigate the rigour of it without which he says The case of the Subject would be desperately miserable But this cure would prove worse than the disease Such pious fathers of the People as Caligula Nero or Domitian were not like to mitigate the rigour nor such as inherit Crowns in their infancy as the present