Vengeance For says the Text In those days were Gyants upon the Earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Men who either were such as bore down all others before them by reason of their vast strength and huge proportion of bulk from Naphal to throw down or from the same word signifying to revolt such as were Revolters from God or from the same Root again signifying to rush upon such as by violence invaded the Rights of others by Violence and Oppression According to which two latter significations the mighty Men of those times were call'd Gyants For that contrary to the Law of Nature supposing then no other Law by force and power they despoil'd the weaker sort not only of their Goods and Possessions but robb'd them of their Children their beautiful Daughters at their will and pleasure so the words Lakach and Bathar imply the one signifying to ravish away by violence and the latter to cull and choose Otherwise with reverence be it spoken it cannot be thought that the being delighted with the Charms of beautiful Women and taking them for Wives was a Crime to merit the Destruction of the Almighty's Handy-work or as the Scripture terms it the Repentance of the Creator that he had made Man But this is mention'd as a Crime 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 including all those other Violations of Law and Justice then raging in the World And this is apparent from the Context which gives the best and brightest light to Interpretation For among all the High Crimes and Misdemeanours that so insanely provok'd the Indignation of the Lord there is none particulariz'd but this one Act of the Mighty stil'd the Sons of God incroaching upon the Rights and Priviledges of the meaner sort call'd the Sons of Men by taking forcibly from them their Daughters and Virgins to satisfie the fury of their Lust and Incontinency For which at first God only determin'd to abbreviate their Days and shorten the measure of their long Lives Perhaps he might forbear expecting a Reformation of their Oppression and Cruelty repeated in the next Verse with aparticular aggravation of the same Fact of going into the daughters of Men not to be avoided by reason of their irresistable force and power as being the Sons of God and Gyants But by vertue of those Conjunctions the Gyants had Sons who became afterwards Men of Renown that is such as made themselves terrible and redoubted by their Cruelties and Exercise of Illegal Dominion and as they multiply'd fill'd the World no doubt with Arbitrary Rapine and wilful Bloodshed to obtain their wicked purposes Which is also more palpably discover'd in the following words explanatory of the preceding general Accusation that the Earth was fill'd with Violence A word so diffusive in its signification that it comprehends all the signal breaches of the Law and Religion and all the Effects and ill Consequences of Violence Rape and Injury which where ever they predominate renders the sufferers miferable Thus we are come to the Destruction of the First World and find the Causes that hasten'd it to be the want of Order and good Government So that it may well be said that while all the Sons of Men had abandon'd themselves to the neglect and contempt of the Law and Justice while Dominion rang'd without the curb of Primitive Reason and Obedience was only Passive Confusion the general Inundation of merciless Cruelty and remorceless Violence set open the Flood-gates of the Deep and let loose the general Inundation of Water that overwhelm'd the whole Earth From whence it being apparent that the contempt and disregard of right Reason and consequently of Law Government Order Justice and proportionate Equality between Dominion and Subjection produc'd those Effects which were the universal subversion of Mankind the chiefest Lesson which the next World had afterwards to learn was to observe the Failings and Miscarriages of their Predecessours and to be tender of running into these Enormities that draw down the Judgments of Heaven and distract and dislocate the Unity and Society of Mankind And had it not been for the solemn Promise of the Almighty how soon another Deluge might have washed away the replenish'd Race of Noah no Man can say Yet might it well be thought there was cause enough given for it while early Nimrod trod the Gyants steps became the Proverb of those times and was call'd Gibbor Tsaid or the strong Hunter before the Lord. For He perceiving the People terrifi'd with the thoughts of the late Deluge and afraid themselves of the same Calamity takes from thence a plausible Pretence to make himself their absolute Lord and soveraign Commander and to inculcate into their grosser apprehensions a deeper awe and reverence of his Person perswades them that he had found out a Means to secure them from all their Fears Joseph Antiquit. l. 1. c. 4. and to that purpose puts them upon that stupendious Labour of building a Tower whose vast heighth should bid defiance as well to Heaven it self as to all future Inundations Which Toil and Travail while they undertook he had the advantages both to exercise and establish the Tyranny which he had long before affected In the pursuit of which Design the numberless Multitude being shatter'd into several Languages were constrain'd to quit their intended Enterprize and having no way to unite again they only assembl'd and embodi'd together as variety of Language prompted their understanding and parting sundry ways sought out particular Habitations some in the nearer some in the remoter empty Regions of the Earth as Room and Convenience led them Where under several Kings and Princes doubtless were Erected several Forms and Constitutions of Government according to the Genius of them that bore sway Nimrod all this while kept his station with those that spake his own Dialect and minding nothing more than to extend his Territories propagated his Dominion where he built Nineveh and Resen particularly call'd the great City by subduing his Neighbours and laid the first Foundation of that Monarchy And these were the first beginnings according to the report of the best Authors of Political Rule and Political Subjection Nor were they in those times though the true Worship of the true God were altogether forgot quite void of a sence of Religion And therefore Nimrod being dead for his great Prowess and admir'd Atchievements after his decease was worshipp'd though not by the Name yet in the Person of Saturn And the Statue of Belus his Successour promoted also to Celestial Dignity was ador'd under the Name of Jupiter Which is thought to be the Original of all the Heathenish Idolatry For tho' as already hath been said there was then a general Oblivion of all true Religion yet they found it absolutely necessary there should be some sort of Religion conjoin'd with Policy finding it so impossible they should be separate and that they were so dependent one upon another that neither could subsist without the other's support To
neither be willing nor indeed know how to live asunder but that like Bees they should always stick to their Hives and be always ready about their Prince to receive and execute his Just Commands Neither did he care to put his Laws in Writing as judging that those things which most conduc'd to the felicity of the City and the bravery of the Inhabitants were to be planted in their Minds by Education and Custom At length having done as much as he thought could be done to advance the Glory and Renown of his Country and the Welfare of the Realm that he might render the effects of his labour diuturnal he assembles the People and takes an Oath from the highest to the lowest that they would observe the Form of Government which he had establish'd among them till his return for that he was then going to consult the Oracle about something farther of great Importance for the Common Good To the Oracle thereupon he goes and after Consultation sends back Apollo's Answer that Lacedemon should flourish so long as they observ'd Lycurgus's Institutions which done he starv'd himself to death at Delphos that he might not absolve the People from their Oaths by his Return Solon also refus'd the Kingdom of Athens when he might have had it Justiu l. 2. c. 7. A Person of that extraordinary Justice that he is by the Historian said to have made Athens a new City behaving himself with that equal Temper between the Senate and the People that both himself and his Laws were equally grateful to both And Lucian also brings in Anacharsis Dial. de Gymnaâ— highly commending him as one that had fram'd most excellent Laws and introduc'd most useful Customs into the Country where he liv'd to the great benefit of the Publick Which Laws as Lucian afterwards in the same Dialogue makes Solon to acknowledge were publickly expos'd in the City of Athens for every one to peruse that so they might understand when they did well and what they were to avoid He could not 't is true reduce the Athenians to that austerity of living to which the Institutions and Education of Lycurgus had enur'd the Lacedemonians as being of a quainter and more airy Geniuâ— where Mercury had an equal ascendant with Mars and would therefore have an equal share in the publick Concerns Yet the renowned Captains that Athens bred the many and famous Victories which they won the Learning of her Philosophers the Liberty of the People and the long flourishing Estate of the Government make it appear that there is more than one way for a Nation to be happy by her own Laws And that Laws agreeable and consentaneous to the Temper of one People will not correspond with the Humour of another On the other side when a Kingdom is once establish'd under settled Constitutions which are found to suit with the Disposition of the People those Constitutions are the Safety and Protection of that People and the Change of such Ordinances has been always the fore-runner of their destruction as by History has been fatally verify'd in the Athenians Lacedemonians and Romans themselves But they who laid the Foundations of Despotic Turanny and Absolute Dominion in War and Devastation cannot be said to have those noble aims of bequeathing Liberty and Safety to the People under their Subjection but only the advancement of lawless Power as believing all Mankind besides to be their Vassals and Slaves and therefore in the heighth of their over-soaring and presumptuous Mortality calling themselves Lords of the Earth and Kings of Kings which swelling Titles were derided in Alexander tho' in the midd'st of his Victories by his Followers better observing the Laws of Nature and Reason All this while they disregarded the equal distribution of Right and Propriety to any and deny'd the Priviledge of Liberty to all while most liv'd miserably and contemptibly none liv'd free This unhappy Bondage the Europeans contemn'd While Conon refus'd to worship the Persian Monarch in all his Glory Just l. 6. c. 2. and Manius the Consul call'd the Asiatic Grecians and Syrians Liu. Hist l. 36. Levissima Hominum Genera Servituti nata For here was no Safety no Security for the People whose Lives were at the Mercy and Beck of one Man They Till'd the Earth and Labour'd only for him they got Posterity only for him to sport away in the bloody Games of War and wilful Vexation Whereas in well Constituted Governments the People enjoying all those Priviledges with which they are satisfy'd themselves by the same Law that warrants their security are bound to pay the Homage of their Obedience to the Prince for his continual Care of their safety And Princes can claim a security of their own without fear or hazard which Tyrants in continual distrust and jeopardy are forc'd to hire and largely pay for Thus if we consider the mighty Ottoman Empire we find him indeed expanding his vast Dominion over the largest part of the habitable World yet through those Violences which his Inhumane Constitutions of Self-safety commit against the Dictates of Nature and Primitive Reason he may be said to be an Emperour rather over Solitudes and Desarts and the wild Beasts that ravage the forsaken Habitations of Mankind than the potent Lord of Numerous Cities He is indeed surrounded with populous Guards but what are they the inforc'd Tribute of Christian Children through the neighbouring Territories under his Subjection who are more his Lords and Masters than he theirs If those his own Domesticated Lyons once begin to roar for want of Pay or other discontent all his Majestic Titles tremble and he must appease their fury with the Heads of his best beloved Favourites His Armies a confus'd Rabble of several Nations brought together to stop the Mouths of Cannons and overbear his less powerful Adversaries with the weight of Multitude In whom there is no faith or confidence neither as not being reciprocally oblig'd by any Act of Kindness which his care confers upon them and therefore following him for Fear not Love And then their own Thrones so tott'ring that they never think 'em fix'd till they have cemented them to the Floor with the Blood of their Brethren or oblig'd their Stipendiaries with a Magnificent Overplus like Amurath the Third Thuan. l. 104. And yet notwithstanding all their Care and Courtship an Ibrahim lies strangled at the feet of his Stipendiaries In a word the Emperours Will is his Law a Capricio lutestrings the most deserving of his Princes And to preserve himself in this excess of Arbitrary Power he deprives the People of their self-Defence their Arms and puts them under the domineering Mastership of Christian Apostates So that in short all things are carry'd on for the sole benefit and advantage of the Tyrannical Monarch without any regard to the good and welfare of the People contrary to the true end of Law and Justice which equally respects the good of all and therefore advances the
still the same they can be guarded by no better security then what has hitherto preserv'd them as upon which the Salvation of the Princes Soul and the Exaltation of the Church depend and all redounding to the Honour of God Neither could Time it self dissolve this Charter as being granted to all the Freemen of the Kingdom to be held and enjoy'd in the Kingdom for ever But what those Liberties were and what the Amendments were is better seen by the Charter it self in regard that what was good by Amendment was on the contrary evil and unjust in practice No Man may be taken or imprison'd or disseis'd of his Free Tenement his Liberties or Free Customs or be Outlaw'd or Exil'd or any way destroy'd nor will we enter upon his Possession Nec super eum ibimus nec super eum mittemus nor Commit him so Selden renders the last words but by the Loyal Judgment of his Peers or Men of his Condition or by the Law of the Land By this Paragraph of the Charter it is plainly to be made out that the Estates and Liberties of the English Subjects are desended and guarded as well by the Law of Nature as by the Law of the Land as having embody'd those Principles of Morality which most conduce to Publick Honesty which is the Common Security All which are muster'd up under that General Head of Alterine feceris quod tibi fieri non vis Which being the Law of Nature is also the Will of God who is the Author of Nature So that as God can command nothing but what is purely honest and just no more can the Law of Nature Now that the Materia prima of this Law is the same with that of the Law of Nature is apparent from hence that it enjoyns necessary Honesty and forbids the Evil contrary to it To clear the point a little farther This Paragraph contains nine Branches relating to the Liberty of Person the security of Property and Possession and the general execution of Justice 1. No Freeman may be taken or imprison'd That is as the Lord Chief Justice Cooke expounds it No Man shall be restrain'd of his Liberty by Petition or Suggestion to the King or his Council but by Indictment or Presentment of good and lawful Men where such deeds be done For Liberty is the power of living at pleasure And no Man lives as he pleases who is not permitted to enjoy that repose and tranquility both of Mind and Body which he proposes to himself Which Liberty was given him by Nature and in some measure granted even to the wild Beasts themselves And therefore to deprive him of the Power of himself is to deprive him of the gift of Nature to which there is nothing that he can have more Right until he forfeit it back to the Law by transgressing it And that it is the gift of Nature is evident from that Love of Liberty which Nature has infus'd even into all the particular Members of the Creation The Elements themselves disdain the Curb of Servitude Imprison'd Fire when it gets loose revenges it self with greater fury The fetter'd Ocean foames and roares at his Confinement The Winds against their will detain'd in the Earth's bowels put the Earth into most violent Convulsions We see how impatiently young Horses brook their Imperious Curbs and how the little Birds at first bewail the Captivity of the Cage Liberty is one of the chiefest Felicities Man has to boast of that he is by Nature Lord of himself and has only Reason to be his Governour Nor does the Law require slavish Subjection from him but natural and necessary Obedience which is therefore so far from being oppressive that it becomes delightful to him because he finds thereby his Liberty preserv'd For these reasons every Man that enjoys his Liberty is said to be the treasurer of a most inestimable Jewel the Priviledge of Nature and his Birthright which they who ravish from him by violence and against the Law of Nature despoil him of the Benefit of Heaven and reduce him to the slavish condition of Beasts as if he were only made for the use of Tyrannizing Power Therefore says this Law let No man be restrain'd of his Liberty or imprison'd but by the Law I omit the fatal Consequences of endangering the Liberty of a People enur'd to Priviledge and Freedom the love of which to them is so excessive that accounting nothing dearer to them in this World they prostrate Life Estate and all at the feet of its Preservation On the other side Popular Licence is with all the severity imaginable to be restrain'd for that unhinges publick Safety and makes an Inundation upon the true Justice of Government Then which nothing can be more pernicious to the Publick Security and the Common Good of Prince and People 2. Let no man be disseis'd or dispossess'd of his Freehold that is of his Lands Livelyhood Liberties or free Customs as belong to him by his free Birth-right And this also depends upon the Law of Nature For no sooner was the World Created but immediately appear'd Propriety Abel was a Keeper of Sheep and Cain a Tiller of the DGround And therefore was Man endu'd by Nature with Industry to advance his Estate to the end he might not only live but live comfortably upon what by his Labour he enjoy'd Which being obtain'd by his own industry and pains Nature instill'd that Moral Principle among Men that it was but just that every man should quietly and peaceably enjoy what he had got by his Labour and the sweat of his Brows And this is evident from the Law of Inheritance the Institution of God himself For if by the Law of Nature he had not power to possess and keep he could not have power to dispose But the undeniable Power of disposition confirms the right of Property and Possession So that for a Man to be despoyl'd of the fruits of his Labour or of the Inheritance of his Ancestors is against the Law of God and Nature Thou shalt eat of the Labour of thy hand happy shalt thou be and it shall be well with thee and He that gathereth by Labour shall encrease This was the Establishment of Property by two of the best of Kings by the dictate of God himself And therefore for Tyranny to waste the Labours of the Subject profusely upon illegal Innovasions and unnecessary Pomp and Riot is a piece of Injustice of the highest Nature And therefore this Law grounded upon the Law of God and Nature takes especial care to secure the Property of the Subject from Exorbitancy and Oppression Not that hereby the Laws of legal Tributes are any way contradicted For they are impos'd upon the People and given to the Prince as a publick Person for the Common Good of which the support of his Dignity is a part And generally in England they are given with the Subjects consent And this is also warranted by Scripture For this reason you pay
Nature spreading their Cherubim-Wings over the Lives and Liberties of every particular person in the Nation The next and sixth Branch Neither will we enter upon his Possession nor commit him may seem to be a particular Promise of moderate Indulgence to the Subject in reference to the peculiar claims and Suits of the King relating to the Crown yet still springing from the same Original Which shews the Kings of England truly fit to rule while they themselves submit to the Laws by which they govern As it was said of Lycurgus Quod nihil lege ulla in alios Sanxit cujus non ipse primus in se Documenta daret The three next Branches relate to the great prejudices and damages which are sustain'd by the ill management and Execution of Justice through the Corruption of its Ministers against which the Law provides in these words We shall sell to no Man Justice or Right We shall deny to no Man Justice or Right We shall delay to no Man Justice or Right The selling of Justice or taking Bribes and the denial and delay of Justice as they are equally dishonourable to God so are they to them that require Justice equally injurious For it is the highest presumption that Man can be guilty of to expose to sale one of the chiefest Attributes of the Almighty There is nothing whereby God more exalts himself to Mankind then in the frequent Repetitions of his Justice Of which he that makes Merchandize prostitutes the Honour of his Maker for filthy lucre and yet neither is it his own to sell for God is the Fountain of Justice from him it all flows and his it is Only he entrusts it with the Ministers of Justice for the good of Mankind He that does Justice uprightly acts like God but he that sells it sells the Act of God and not his own for tho it prove Justice in the purchaser yet it is not Justice in the seller but the Price of the Buyer which if the poor and needy want they must not have because they have not wherewithal to bid for it who are nevertheless under the Protection of Justice equally with the most Opulent However God out of his boundless Providence foresaw how great would be the Temptations of Avarice and the allurements of Gold tho currant no where but upon Earth that he provides against the charming Iniquiry by a strict command Thou shalt not respect persons nor take a Gift for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise So that the high Crimes alledg'd against the Sons of Samuel were that they turn'd after Lucre and took Bribes From whence the Light of Nature infus'd the same detestation of these Misdemeanors in all other Ministers of Justice By Hesiod they are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Gift-eaters whom he makes Justice to follow weeping and bewailing the fatal Consequences of her bad usage Phocyllides also from the same Law of Nature could give this advice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let not favour byass Justice for if thou dost saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God will afterwards judge thee And another of the Gnomonicks wouldst thou support thy life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by doing justly then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fly ill got gain We read in Herodotus of Sesamnes one of the Persian Judges put to death for Bribery by Cambyses who caus'd him to be flea'd after he was dead and his Tann'd Skin to be cut into Thongs to make a Seat for his Son Among the Roman's by the Junian Law Bribery or selling of Justice was punish'd with Exile and by the Acilian Law they were immediately to receive Judgment without any demurs It may be thought that selling of places relating to Courts of Judicature was not a custom then in practice else we might conclude that they who made such ample provision against the selling of Justice would have as carefully provided against the selling of those Inferiour Authorities that refer to the Execution of it Especially when the Rates run so High as now they do Twelve hunder'd Two Thousand pound for a Jaylours place Four hundâ—â—â—â—oâ—â— Serjeants and so proportionably for others For it serves for a specious Plea to those that shall be call'd to accompt for their miscarriages that they have bought so dear Nor does the Name of a Favourite in Court sound well for though it may not be so effectual as some may think yet is the thing it self suspicious to all especially when they see the Fortunes and Emoluments of that person advanc'd above others of equal merit But after pardon for this short digression the two next Grievances by this Charter promis'd to be reform'd are the delay and denial of Justice both much of the same Nature seeing that the Delay is in some measure the denial of Justice Which words delay of Justice are so expounded by several Acts of Parliament that by no means Common Right or Common Law should be disturb'd or delay'd tho' it be commanded under the Great or Privy Seal or by any Order Writ Letters or Command whatsoever even from the Prince himself or any other but that the Justices shall proceed as if no such Writs Letters Messages or Commandment were come to them And therefore the Epithite of Celeris is giv'n to the Law in regard there is nothing which can be more welcom to those who are aggriev'd or distressed then quick and speedy Relief And this is without doubt the meaning of those positive Commands in Scripture to which the Judges of the Earth to hear the cries of the Poor and Needy who if not soon redress'd are doubly undone by unnecessary Expence and with-holding from them the profit of their legal and just claims But as the Delay is bad so is the positive denial so much the more to be avoided by how much the Lamentations and Cries of the injur'd make a louder sound in the Ears of Heaven and open with greater swiftness and more rapid violence the Flood-gates of Divine Vengeance upon a Nation For if the cause of the oppressed be the cause of God then the denial of Justice is the denial of the Almighties own Suit with whom this great Charter would not contend And therefore the Prince here minding his future Salvation freely discards the selling delay and denial of Justice knowing how little they would avail when unreliev'd Oppression should plead against him at the Bar of Heaven If then the Law of England be the surest Sanctuary which an English Man can take and the strongest Fortress to protect the weakest of All it must be assuredly much more sacred and beneficial when built up of the Materials of Gods Commands and Natures Light Nor can they who at any time shall seek to destroy so beautiful a Structure expect other then to perish in its Ruines But here may some advance a Quaere and ask what is meant by this Per legem terrae this Law of the Land A Scrutiny with the same facility as made plainly