great Power and Trust in so few hands was look'd upon as a great Obligation to those Lords and a great Security to that King so long as their Interests stood united in their new Conquest yet in the next Age when the heat of that Action was over their Interests divided and the Obligation forgotten it proved to the succeeding Kings so great a Curb and Restraint to Sovereignty that nothing fell more intimately into their Care than how to retrench as much as they durst the Power of that Nobility which they began to suspect and was like in time to mate even Monarchy it self Though others foresaw the mischief in time yet none attempted the Remedy untill King John who no sooner began to reign in his own Right for by the way he practis'd a little in his Brother's time and by that Experience found Mat. Paris his Words true of the Barons viz. Quot Domini tot Tyranni But he bethought himself to frame his Counsel of such a Constitution as he might have Credit and Influence upon it To be short he was the first that durst restrain the tumultuary access of the Barons to Council he was the first that would admit of none but such as he should summon and would summon none but such as he thought fitting and besides he would send out Summons to several of the Commons or lesser Tenants mixing them with the Nobles and engaging them thereby to his Interest and whereas before the Council consisted of the Nobility and Clergy he erected a third Estate a Body of the Commons or lesser Tenants which might in some measure equal the rest and be faithful to him All which appears in the Clause Rolls and Patent Rolls of the sixth Year of this King and in vain before that time shall any Man seek either for Summons or Advice of the Commons in any of these great Councils King John having put this Cheque upon the Councils considers next how to ballance the unequal power of the unruly Barons and first he tampers with the Bishops and Clergy sain he would have drawn them into his Party at least to his Dependency but that Tryal cost him dear In the next place therefore that he might create new Dependances and new Strength to himself he becomes a great Patron and Founder or at least Benefactor to many considerable Corporations as Newcastle Yarmouth Lynn and others insomuch that he is taken notice of by Speed and other of our Chroniclers and stiled particularly the Patron of Corporations Thus you see not only when but for what Reason the Institution of the House of Commons was first thought upon and indeed according to their old or first Constitution their Attendance in Parliament or as we say their serving in Parliament was look'd upon rather as an easier Service due to the King than otherwise as a Priviledge granted to the People as may be seen not only in the Case of the Burgesses of St. Albans in temp Ed. 2. recited by the Worthy Dr. Brady against Petit but also by many other good Authorities too long for this place But begging your Pardon for this long Story I now proceed to the second Parenthesis in which he makes no Scruple to accuse his present Majejesty and his late Sacred Father of breaking the Law in adjourning proroguing and dissolving Parliaments Indeed Cousin I know nothing that reflects more truly upon the Constitution of our Government than that it suffers such pestilent seditious Men as our Author seems to be to live under it For nothing sure is more evident in the whole or any part of the Law whether Statute common or customary than that the Kings of England ever since the first Parliament that ever was call'd have had and exercis'd the same Power in adjourning proroguing and dissolving them as his present Majesty or his Father of Blessed Memory ever did And that you may have Plato's own Authority against himself I must anticipate so much of his Discourse as to inform you That in p. 105. you will find these very Words That which is undoubtedly the King 's Right or Prerogative is to Call and Dissolve Parliaments Nay more so great was the Authority and Prerogative of our Kings over the House of Commons according to their old Constitution That they have in their Writs of Summons named and appointed the particular Persons all over England who were to be returned to their Parliaments sometimes have order'd that only one Knight for the Shire and one Burgess for a Corporation should be sent to their Parliaments and those also named to the Sheriffs and sometimes more as may be seen by the very Writs of Edw. 2. and Edw. 3. fully recited by the aforesaid Dr. Brady from p. 243. to p. 252. Besides Sir what is more reasonable and equitable than that our Kings should enjoy the Power of Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving that their Council or Parliament when and as often as they please since our Kings alone in Exclusion to all other mortal Power in England whatsoever enjoy â—olely the Prerogative of Calling or Assembling these their Parliaments when and where they alone shall think convenient Mer. I confess we generally say That it is a great Weakness in a cunning Man to raise a Spirit which afterwards he cannot lay and that in such case the Spirit tears him in pieces first who rais'd him And I think we have had the Misfortune to see somewhat very tragical of this kind in the beginning of our late Troubles if it were not possibly the great Cause of his late Majesty's fatal Catastrophe But truly excepting that case I never heard the King's Authority in proroguing or dissolving Parliaments question'd before Trav. Well Sir go forward to the twenty fifth Page for all between is nothing but quacking and ridiculous Complements or Matter as little worth our notice Mer. He tells us there that it remains undiscovered how the first Regulation of Mankind began that Necessity made the first Government that every Man by the Law of Nature had like Beasts in a Pasture Right to every thing That every Individual if he were stronger might seise whatever any other had possessed himself of before Trav. Hold a little Sir that we may not have too much Work upon our Hands at once I think he said before at Page 22. That he would not take upon him so much as to conjecture how and when Government began in the World c. This Cousin I cannot pass by because it seems to be the only piece of Modesty which I observe in his whole Treatise And I should commend him for it much but that I have great reason to suspect that he pretends Ignorance only to cover his Knavery and thereby leave room to introduce several other most false and pernicious Principles which we shall endeavour to refute First therefore I shall take the Liberty not only to conjecture but to tell him plainly when and where Covernment began and how also it continued
there reigned any King over the Children of Israel And these are the Names of the Dukes that came of Esau according to their Families after their Places by their Names And Verse the last These be the Dukes of Edom according to their Habitations in the Land of their Possessions he is Esau the Father of the Edomites Now what can be more particular or express than what I have here produc'd Or what can he mean by tracing the Foundation of Polities which are or ever came to our Knowledge since the World began if these will not pass for such He cannot pretend that we should bring a long Roll of Parchment like a Welch Pedigree ap Shinkin ap Morgan and so from the Son to the Father untill we arrive at ap Ismael ap Esau ap Magog ap Javan and so forth that would be too childish to imagine of him for we know very well that all the Kingdoms upon the Earth have oftentimes chang'd their Masters and Families But if he means as surely he must if he mean any thing that we cannot name any such Kingdom or Government that hath been so begun then he is grosly mistaken for the Assyrians the Medes the Ethiopians or Cusoei the Lydians the Jones or Greeks and very many others are sufficiently known and preserve to this day the very names of their first Founders who as is made appear were all Fathers of Families Mer. Cousin I begin to be very weary of this rambling Author Pray therefore let us go on as fast as we can Trav. Read then what follows Mer. As for Abraham whilst he liv'd as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question govern'd their Housholds as all others do What have you to say to this Holy Patriarch and most excellent Man Trav. I say we are beholden to our Author that he did not call him a Country Farmer some such a one it may be as in his new Model of the Government is to share the Royal Authority Indeed it is hard that whom the declar'd Enemies to the Hebrew People have thought fit to call a King we who adore the Son of Abraham will not allow to be better than a common Housholder Mer. I confess my Reading is not great but as far as the Bible goes I may adventure to give my Opinion And if I mistake not the Children of Heth own'd him to be a mighty Prince among them Trav. Yes Sir and the Prophet David in the hundred and fifth Psalm calls him the Lords Anointed But because I perceive the Word of God is too vulgar a Study for our Learned Statesman I have found out a Prophane Author who concurs with the History of the Bible And first Justin makes no Scruple to call him in plain Words a King Post Damascum Azillus Mox Adores Abraham Israel Reges fuere lib. 36. Josephus also and Grotius who are Men of no small Repute even amongst the most Learned have quoted Nicolaus Damascenus to vindicate the Regal Authority of Abraham His Words are very intelligible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And tells us moreover that in his Days which was in the Reign of Augustus the Fame of Abraham was much celebrated in that Country and that there was yet a little Town remaining which was called by his Name Mer. I perceive when Men grow fond of their own Imaginations they run over all and neither Reason nor Religion have any Power to stop them Trav. Then he introduceth Samuel upon the Stage chiefly I suppose to insinuate that the People had a Power and did choose themselves a King which is so notoriously false that they never had the least share or pretended any in the election of Saul It is true they chose rather to be govern'd by a temporal King who was to live amongst them and rule as other Kings did than continue under the Government of the King of Heaven and Earth and so the Word chose relates wholly to the Government but not to the Person of the Governour For which Samuel also reproves them and accordingly they acted no farther leaving the Election of their new King wholly to God and their Prophet and God did particularly choose him from the rest of their People and Samuel actually anointed him before the People knew any thing of the matter Afterwards lest some might have accus'd Samuel of Partiality in the Choice he order'd Lots to be cast which in the Interpretation of all men is leaving the Election to God and Saul was again taken What Junius Brutus another old antimonarchical seditious Brother objects concerning renewing the Kingdom at Gilgal where it is said And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord will serve very little to prove any Right of Power in the People no not so much as of Election for confirming and renewing the Kingdom and such like Expressions signifie no more than the taking by us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy which I think were never thought to give the King any Right to the Crown but only a just Right to punish us for our Perjury as well as Disobedience in Case of Rebellion So renewing the Covenant with God as particularly a little before the Death of Joshuah cannot be supposed to give a greater right of Power to God Almighty than what he had before but is only a stricter Obligation for the Peoples Obedience that they might be condemned out of their own Mouths And Joshuah said unto the People See ye are Witnesses against your selves So Samuel makes the People bind themselves to God to their King and to their Prophet that they would faithfully obey him whom the Lord had set over them And behold saith Samuel the Lord hath set a King over you But having spoke more to this purpose elsewhere and the Case being most clear as well by the History it self as by the Authority of Grotius and other learned Men that Saul and the rest of the Hebrew Kings did not in the least depend upon their People but received all their Right of Power wholly from God we will proceed with our Author Only I must note by the way that with the learned Gentleman's leave neither the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People nor the Princes of the Tribes had any manner of Power but what was subordinate and that only to judge the People according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses And so they continued to the Babylonish Captivity Grotius only observing in favour of the Sanhedrim that they had a particular Right of judging concerning a whole Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Mer. Well Sir we are now come to our modern despotical Power What say you to Mahomet and Cingis Can. Trav. Prethee Cousin let 's not trouble our selves with those Turks and Tartars they are yet â—ar enough off and not like to trouble us nor does their Government much concern us we have Laws of our own sufficient which
or subject to any other mans right or authority so as that they may be made void according to the will or pleasure or decrees of any other mortal man Potestas summa illa dicitur cujus actus alterius juri non substunt ita ut alterius humanae voluntatis arbitrio irriti reddi possunt De jure B. P. p. 47. But with submission to so great authorities These do not reach the definition of an absolute Monarch in a good sense as it ever ought to be taken For though they have given their Prince exemption from all Laws and power enough to command yet they have not excluded Tyranny which indeed is oftentimes mistaken for absolute power I confess it seems hard to destroy the Tyrant and yet preserve the absolute Monarch However I shall presume to give such a definition as may do both which I refer to the impartial judgment of those who shall consider it An absolute Monarch then is he who having receiv'd a just authority executes the Laws of God and Nature without controul By receiving a just authority I exclude one principal mark of a Tyrant which is intrusion or usurpation In the next place I oblige the absolute Monarch to execute the Laws of God and Nature and nothing contrary to them By this also Government is freed from Tyranny in the use or exercise of authority For he who governs according to the Laws of God and Nature I speak of a Natural Monarch or a Monarch in the state of Nature does no unjust thing and is by consequence no Tyrant And lastly as I have secur'd the absolute Prince from Tyranny so I have plac'd him above all conditional limited Governments by these words without controul For he who commands or governs as far as the Laws of God and Nature permit hath certainly as ample and as absolute a Jurisdiction as any mortal man can justly possess This is so large a power that he who acts beyond it that is contrary to it is deservedly esteem'd a Tyrant and in such case the people are not oblig'd to obey And the reason is because the Prince having never receiv'd an authority to command that which is unjust that is to say contrary to the Laws of God and Nature the people are acquitted from their obediences as to that particular command All that we have now to do is but to apply this definition to the Hebrew Kings and from thence we shall be able to judge of their absolute power And first it is certain that they receiv'd their right of power from God himself and no other which continued by Succession especially after David unto the Babylonish captivity I have not time at present to inlarge upon this point and answer those frivolous objections which some men have brought against it You will find this done more fully in another place and confirm'd by the authority of Josephus Grotius and the History of the Bible I know some have pretended that David received his authority from the people and would prove it by a passage in 1 Chron. 11. where it is said that the Elders anointed David King over Israel But we must observe that David was Anointed first by Samuel and that by the express command of God himself and next this second Anointing by the people signified nothing more than to exclude by this publick act the pretensions of Isbosheth eldest Son to Saul Who without the special reveal'd will of God would have succeeded his father And this was ever practised where there was any interruption or dispute in the Succession So Solomon was anointed because of the difference between him and Adonijah otherwise that Ceremony was not absolutely necessary and was many times totally neglected Besides in the case of David it is plain that he received no right of power from the people but from God and that by their own confession both before and after their anointing And the Lord thy God said unto thee thou shalt feed my people Israel and thou shalt be ruler over my people Israel And again They anointed David King over Israel according to the word of the Lord by Samuel 1 Chron. 11. 2 3. Hence Grotius observes that David gave God thanks for that God had subjected his people unto him David Deo gratias agit quod populum suum sibi subjecerit Taking it therefore for granted that David received no right of power from the people by consequence he depended upon none but God as all the most Soveraign Princes do and this is one great mark of an absolute Monarch In the next place he executed the laws of God and nature without controul I never heard any question made of this except in the case of judgment concerning a Tribe the High Priest and a Prophet Which judgments Grotius supposed were taken from the Hebrew Kings Aliqua judicia arbitror regibus adempta But I rather think under favour that they were more properly Principibus concessa which makes a considerable difference For I find no mention of any time or power who could take those judgments from the King On the contrary we read of several Kings erecting Courts of Judicature and making Judges both in Gods cause and in the Kings And these three points being of the highest consequence the judgment of them might most probably be granted by the King to the determination of the highest Court of Justice In the first of Chron. chap. 26. v. 5. We find David making Rulers over the Reubenites the Gadites and the half Tribe of Manasseh for every matter pertaining to God and the affairs of the King but more particularly in the second of Chron. chap. 19. Jehoshaphat does the same thing but in terms more plain And he set Judges in the Land through all the fenced Cities of Judah City by City And said to the Judges take heed what you do c. Moreover in Jerusalem did Jehoshaphat set of the Levites and of the Priests and of the Chief of the Fathers of Israel for the judgments of the Lord and for controversies when they return'd to Jerusalem And behold Amariel the Chief Priest is over you in all matters of the Lord and Zedekiah the son of Ishmael the Ruler of the house of Judah for all the Kings matters Indeed I should think that this is plain enough to prove that their Kings had in them the Supreme right of administring justice through their territories and made their Subordinate officers who wholly depended upon them and I am the more confirm'd in this opinion because I find both the High Priests and Prophets too judged condemned and pardoned even against the judgment of the Sanhedrim by the Kings single authority So Solomon banished the High Priest Abiathar Solomon Abiatharem Pontiâ—icem in exilium misit says Josephus lib. 8. so Jehoiakim slew the Prophet Vriah And they sent forth Vriah out of Aegypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim the King who slew him with the Sword Jer. 26. 23. The same did Joash
Soveraign power in the house of Lords either conjunctim or divisim joyntly or separately without the King therefore the Soveraign right of power can be no where but in the King right of council is in the Lords and Commons in Parliament duly assembled but right of command is in the King For he both calls the Parliament and dissolves it One Soveraign power cannot dissolve another Soveraign power could they be supposed together except by force But the Kings of England have ever called and dissolved Parliaments not by force but by right of power and command which belongs to them by inherent birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession A Bill which shall have regularly past both Houses and brought even to the Royal assent is no Act nor hath it any manner of force as such without the Kings will Le Roy le veult doth solely and necessarily transform a Bill into a Statute and is the essential constituent part of it His Will doth alone give life and being to that which is no more than a dead insignificant letter without it Nay though a Bill should pass both Houses with the unanimous consent and approbation of every individual Member yet the King may refuse it and it is indisputably the right of our Kings so to do if they shall so think sitting which prove evidently amongst other things that the Soveraign Power is solely in our Kings Merch. But Sir Plato Red. insinuates very strongly p. 123. that It is a violation of right and infringment of the Kings Coronation Oath to frustrate the counsels of a Parliament by his negative voice and that in his opinion the King is bound confirmare consuetudines or pass such laws as the people shall choose Trav. The Delphick Oracle did never impose Laws more peremptorily to the Greeks than Plato Red. would arrogantly obtrude his private opinions upon us for notwithstanding all the Laws are against him yet he alone would pretend to devest the King of this his undoubted Prerogative But Sir there is a difference between new modelling a Government and maintaining it according to its ancient institution If Plato designs the first he may as well pretend it is inconvenient that the Imperial Crown of England should be Hereditary and Successive and endeavour to make it Elective for the right of a negative voice in Parliament is as certainly the Prerogative of the Kings of England as their right of Inheritance or Succession is But having no design to dâ—…te so much at this time what â—lteration might be convenient for us as â—o maintain what the Kings Right â—â— and ever hath been according to the â—â—cient as well as present Consâ—…tion of the Government I must 〈…〉 do averr That the King enjoyinâ— â—â—reditarily and undeniably this Nâ—…tive voice in Parliament hath himself the Supreme power of England And this the English Gentleman and his Doctor seem to acknowledge p. 105. Besides If the Soveraign power of England were not solely in the King then when there is no Parliament there could be no Soveraign power in England which is ridiculous and absurd For there is no Free and independent Kingdom or Commonwealth upon earth in which there is not at all times a Soveraign power in being If the Soveraign power ceaseth for a moment the power which remains becomes dependent and at the same instant a higher power must appear But the Imperial Crown of England depends upon none but God Omnis sub Rege ipse sub nullo nisi tantum Deo says Bracton an ancient and a Learned Author and again Rex non habet superiorem nisi Deum The King has no Superiour but God Or as it was express'd under H. 4. The Regality of the Crown of England is immediately subject to God and to none other Mer. But since the King can neither make any Laws nor levy any Taxes without the consent of both Houses it shews sure that at least some of the Soveraign power resides in them Trav. I perceive Cousin you have forgot your Grotius for he tells you that you must distinguish between the Empire and the manner of holding the Empire or the Jus ab usu Juris Aliud enim est Imperium aliud habendi modus So that although the Kings of England do generally promise or swear not to alter the Government nor to make Laws or levy impositions but according to the ancient Constitutions of the Kingdom yet nevertheless this takes not from him his Soveraign right of power for that he hath in him by Birthright and Inheritance and according to the Original Institution of the Kingdom and which is antecedent and Superiour also to any Oaths or Obligations I 'll give you Grotius his own words as you will find them l. 1. c. 3. s 16. Non definit summum esse Imperium etiamsi is qui imperaturm est promittat aliqua subditis etiam talia quae ad imperandi rationem pertineant But he confesseth indeed that such a Constitution is a little limitation to the Supreme power Fatendum tamen arctius quodammodo reddi Imperium But it doth not follow from thence that there is any authority Superiour to his own Non inde tamen sequitur ita promittenti Superiorem dari aliquem And he gives you the example of the Persian Monarchs who though they were as absolute as any Kings could be yet when they enter'd upon the Government they sware to observe certain Laws which they could not alter Apud Persas Rex summo cum Imperio erat tamen jurabat cum regnum adiret leges certa quadam forma latas mutare illi nefas erat So also that the Egyptian Kings were bound to the observance of several Customs and Constitutions Aegyptiorum Reges quos tameâ— ut alios Reges Orientis summo imperio usos non est dubium ad multarum rerum observationem oblig abantur Mer. Very well Sir but pray why may not the Soveraign power remain still in the people especially if all be true which our Author boldly affirms p. 119. viz. That our Prince hath no authority of his own but what was first entrusted in him by the Government of which he is head Trav. Here Plato plays the Villain egregiously is a Traitor incognito and carries Treason in a dark lanthorn which he thinks to discover or conceal according to the success of Rebellion which he evidently promotes But we shall unmask this Republican Faux And first our King whom he calls Prince not understanding it may be the difference between Regnum and Principaâ—us hath no authority saith he but what was first intrusted by the Government Here Government is a word of an amphibious nature and can as well subsist under a Monarchy as a Commonwealth For if Rebellion doth not prosper then Government in this place signifies the Law of the Land and indeed the King's authority over us is establish'd by the Law that is to say the consent and acknowledgment of the People in due form That
the King hath inherently antecedently and by Birth-right a Soveraign authority over all his people and this is confirm'd to him both by Statute Common Law and Custom according to that of 19. H. 6. 62. The Law is the inheritance of the King and people by which they are rul'd King and people But if the Commonwealths men gain their point if the Association and its brat bloody murder had taken its damnable effect then Government had most plainly signified the People and that is truly our Authors meaning for the words which immediately follow are these Nor is it to be imagin'd that they would give him more power than what was necessary to govern them What can be the antecedent to They and Them but the word Subjects which precedes in the beginning of the Sentence This is the true Presbyterian or Phanatick way of speaking their most mischievous Treasons which like a Bizzare with a little turn of the hand represents ether the Pope or the Devil But since we are so plainly assured of his meaning I 'll take the liberty for once to put it plainly into words and I think it will then run thus That our King having neither by birthright nor by a long undoubted Succession of above six hundred years any Authority of his own but only that which the people have intrusted in him for they would give him no more than what was just necessary to govern them p. 119. the people in whom the Soveraign power resides may call this their minister otherwise called King to an account for the administration of this his trust and in case he should not acquit himself according to their expectation the Soveraign Subject might punish this their Subject King turn him out of his office as all Supreme governours may their subordinate officers nay and set up any other form of Government whatsoever without doing any manner of injustice to their King This is our Authors doctrine as appears not only by inevitable consequences drawn from this mâ—tuated or fide-commissary power which he hath placed in the King but from the whole context and course of his Libel Now though Hell it self could not have invented a proposition more notoriously false though the whole Association could not have asserted a more Traiterous principle though the Supreme power or Soveraign right of Government hath been fixed to the imperial Crown of England ever since the beginning of History or Kings amongst us or the memorial of any time though more than twenty Parliaments which are the wisdom and Representatives of the whole Nation have by several explanatory Acts and Statutes confessed declared and affirmed that this Soveraign Authority or power of England is solely in the King and his laâ—â—ul Heirs and Successors in exclusion to all other mortal power whatsoever Rex habet potestatem jurisdictionem super omnes qui in regno suo sunt Nay although all the Power Priviledges Liberties and even the Estates of the people proceeded originally from the meer bounty of our Kings as both ancient and modern Authors and Histories have evidently made it appear And after all notwithstanding our Author hath not produced one single authority or one little peice of an Act Statute or Law to prove that the Soveraign power is in the people or that the King held his authority only in trust from them as he plainly affirms or when they entrusted him with it or had it in themselves to grant yet by an unparallelled piece of impudence and vanity he dares to bring his own private opinion in competition with the wisdom learning practice decrees and justice of the whole Nation condemn our Ancestors as betrayers of the peoples rights and priviledges and by a single ipse dixit prove himself the only true Physician learned Statesman and except some who in most Ages have been Executed for their most horrid Treasons the only worthy Patriot of his Countrey and Defender of its rights Now lest some of our ignorant and infatuated multitude like the Children of Hamel should dance after our Authors popular and Northern Bagpipe until he precipitates them all into inevitable ruin and destruction I am resolved not to insist at present upon his Majesties Hereditary and undoubted Soveraign right of power which he now possesses not only by prescription and a Succession of more than eight hundred years but by all the Laâ—s of the Land as hath been already declared and the universal consent of all his good Subjects confirmed by their Oaths of Allegeance from which none but Rebels and perjured men can depart I will not I say at present urge those arguments which are sufficient to convince opiniastrete and wilful ignorance it self but will attack him in his strongest Gothick â—orts and the rational part upon which he seems most to value himself And first for these Goths I cannot find in any History when it was they came over into England nay I am confident that all Learned men will agree that there is no probable conjecture from any Author that they ever have been here or crost our Seas or came nearer us than Normandy one argument amongst others is the flourishing condition of our Island above France where the Goths and Vandalls had made some ravage in point of Learning and Sciences insomuch that Alcuinus an Englishman and Scholar to the Venerable Bede was sent unto Charles the Great to whom he became Doctor or Professor in Divinity Astronomy and Philosophy and by his direction erected the University of Paris But to return to our Goths it is certain that at first they travelled South-East which is very different from South-West such as iâ— our situation from theirs And yet our politick Author tells us positively according to his usual method that they establish'd their government in these parts after their conquest p. 93. And endeavouring to prove in p. 46. and 97. that according to their institution the people had an influence upon the Government he tells us that the Governments of France Spain and England by name and other countries where these people setled were fram'd accordingly Here we see our Country conquer'd and an excellent form of Government establish'd by the Goths so good and admirably just that we in this age must quit our happy Monarchy which hath subsisted most gloriously many Hundreds of years only to run a wool-gathering after these precarious Gothick Princes and yet no man could ever tell us when this conquest happen d nor by whom nor what became of them nor indeed any thing more than what the extravagant fancy of our Author hath imagin'd As for the Romans who conquer'd us sure they were neither Goths nor Northern people and so nothing can be pretended from that Conquest nor are the Saxons who next invaded us to be called Northern people by us at least who lye so much North to them our selves But forgiving Plato all his absurdities and incongruities the rather that we may find out the Truth and confound him with
did not expect and hesitating much without giving any satisfactory account of what was demanded he was cast into chains and punish'd according to the hainousness of the offence Mer. And may all the Manlii amongst us be alike confounded Next Sir I cannot approve of the liberty men take of publishing their private sentiments which are generally grounded upon nothing but conjecture and Enthusiastical follies Trav. Certainly nothing would conduce more to our quiet than that the liberty of the press should be restrain'd But since it is not our business to look into those liberties which we enjoy so much as into those which we want let us leave the consideration of these and many other such things to our prudent Governours I shall only note this one thing by the way that since the Act of Habeas Corpus I think I may confidently affirm that even at this time when there is so much danger of a pretended slavery the Subjects of England enjoy a greater liberty than was known to any of our Ancestors before us Pray therefore proceed to the second consideration which is our properties Mer. That is wholly unnecessary for all the world knows that whatsoever we possess is so secured by the Laws of the Land that the King himself doth not pretend in prejudice of those Laws which indeed are his own Laws to touch the least Chattel that belongs to us nor can any Tax be impos'd but such as shall be granted by Act of Parliament which is the very Government that our Author so much approves And in a word Plato himself has clear'd this point telling us p. 127 That the people by the fundamental Laws that is by the constitution of the Government of England have entire freedom in their lives properties and their persons neither of which can in the least suffer but according to the Laws And to prevent any oppression that might happen in the execution of these good Laws which are our Birthright all Trials must be by twelve men of our equals and in the next page lest the King 's Soveraign authority might be urg'd as a stop to the execution of those Laws he tells us That neither the King nor any by authority from him hath any the least power or jurisdiction over any English man but what the Law gives him And if any person shall be so wicked as to do any injustice to the life liberty or estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person aggriev'd or his next of kin if he be Assassinated shall have the same remedy against the offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of the Land if there had been no such command given Now dear Cousin in the name of sense and reason where can be the fault and distemper of our Government as it relates to the ease and priviledge of the Subject if this be the constitution of it as at least our Author himself affirms Trav. Faith Sir I could never find it out nor any man else that ever I could meet withal And what is still stranger our great Platonick Physician hath not vouchsafed to give us any one particular instance in what part our disease lyes notwithstanding he alarms us with dismal news of being dead men and that without such a strange turn of Government as his pregnant Noddle hath found out we are ruin'd for ever 'T is true he tells us that the property being in the hand of the Commoners the Government must necessarily be there also and for which the Commoners are tugging and contending very justly and very honourably which makes every Parliament seem a present state of war Mer. But Sir if it be true that we enjoy all those benefits and blessings before mentioned that the Government it self secures these properties inviolably to us which we know to be most certain without the testimony of Plato or any man else what then does this tugging concern us or what relation has it to our happiness which is already as great as we can wish it to be Must the enjoyment of our properties put us into a state of war Must our health become our disease and our fatness only make us kick against our masters what can this contention for Government signifie more than ambition and what could their success produce less than Tyranny should the House of Commons become our masters what could they bestow upon us more than we already enjoy except danger and trouble And what can our present Government take from us except the fears of those fatal consequences which such a popular innovation would induce Let then the property be where it will and if we possess it securely we are the happier for it Trav. Your reasons are too plain and strong to be resisted I shall quit therefore this point and inform you how our Author seems in many places to insinuate that the want of frequent and annual Parliaments is the cause of our distemper and that calling a Parliament every year might prove a pretty cure according to a certain Act in the time of Edward the first and that then instead of hopping upon one leg we might go limping on upon three Mer. Faith Cousin you are now gotten out of my reach and you must answer this your self I can only proceed according to my former rule which is that if we be as happy as we can be a Parliament cannot make us more Trav. That answer is I think sufficient to satisfie any reasonable man However we will speak somewhat more particularly concerning this matter as we find it recorded in History Our Author informs us in p. 110. That by our Constitution the Government was undeniably to be divided between the King and his Subjects which by the way is undeniably and notoriously false for according to our ancent Constitution as well under the Saxon as our Norman Kings the Government or the right of Power was originally and solely in our Kings And that divers of the great men speaking with that excellent Prince King Edward the first about it called a Parliament and consented to a Declaration of the Kingdoms right in that point So there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be The same he confirms in p. 159. and in other places Now Sir if after these fine Speeches by those great men whom undoubtedly our Author could have named to this excellent Prince it should happen at last that there was no such Act during the Reign of Edward the first what would you think of our Author Merch. In troth Sir it would not alter my opinion for I already believe him to be an impudent magisterial Impostor Trav. I fear indeed he will prove so for except he hath found in his politick search some loose paper that never yet came into our Statute books we must conclude that he is grossly mistaken For the first Act that is extant of that kind was in the
so necessary to be effected that it was morally impossible to succeed in the former until the latter was actually executed It being then most certain that our Authors intention was to establish a Common wealth I shall now give you my reasons why we ought not upon any terms to admit of it And first I shall not insist much upon those vulgar inconveniences which are visible to all men As for example the inevitable consequences of most bloudy wars For can any rational man believe that all the Royal family should be so insensible of their right and honour as never to push for three Kingdoms which would so justly belong to them or could they be supposed to leave England under their popular usurpation what reason hath Scotland to truckle under the Domination of the English Commonalty What pretence hath the English Subject supposing they were to share in the English Government over the Kingdom of Scotland All the world knows that that Kingdom belongs so particularly to our King that the late Rebells themselves did not scruple to call him King of the Scots Why should Ireland also become a Province to an English Parliament Or should both Kingdoms be willing to shake off the Government of their Natural Lawful and antient Monarchy why should they not set up a Democracy or an Aristocracy or what else they pleas'd amongst themselves Is there never a Statesman in the three Kingdoms but Plato Redivivus Can none teach them to Rebel but he No rules to maintain an usurpt Authority but what we find among his extravagancies I am confident you do not believe it Shall these people notoriously known to have hated one another whilst formerly they were under different Governours become the strictest friends when they shall return unto those circumstances under which they were the greatest enemies Will the French King take no advantage having so good a pretext of our Divisions Or should we unite against him under our popular Governours was it ever known that a Confederate army was able to defend themselves long against an Army of equal strength commanded by one sole absolute Monarch Can we foresee any thing but most desperate wars and can wars be supported but by most heavy taxes Were not our Thimbles and Bodkins converted in the late times into Swords and Mortar pieces and by a prodigious transmutation never before heard of were not our Gold and Ear-rings turn'd into a brazen Idol These consequences Cousin and dismal effects of a Commonwealth besides many other are so obvious that I shall not spend any more time to mind you of them Supposing then that none of those former horrid inconveniences might happen I must mind you by the way that one reason why our Author and the Associators desire a Commonwealth proceeds from the fear of a certain Arbitrary power which they pretend the King would introduce as may be seen pag. 161. 208 and in several other places Now Though nothing be more extravagant than such a groundless imagination our Author having assured us that his Majesty never did one act of Arbitrary power since his happy restoration And moreover pag. 176. That our laws against Arbitrary power are abundantly sufficient Yet that we may no more dispute this point I must produce Plato's own authority against himself in these words That the King fears his power will be so lessened by degrees that at length it will not be able to keep the Crown upon his head pag. 208. Nay farther in pag. 214. he shews us That it is impossible he should ever become an Arbitrary King For his present power as little as it is is yet greater than the condition of property can admit and in a word from his beloved Aphorism and the whole course of his Libel he endeavours to prove that Dominion being founded on the property and the property being in the people the King can have no manner of hopes upon earth of becoming absolute nor introducing an Arbitrary Government but by some Army of Angels from Heaven who must procure him an Authority which he cares not for The next and main reason why our Author would set up a Democracy at least as far as I can collect from the whole scope of his discourse is because the State inclines to popularity Now Sir for this last time I must make use of our Author 's own reasons against his own positions and do affirm that for this very reason were there no other all sober men and true Politicians ought to oppose with their utmost endeavours a Popular Government I will not recount to you the many mischiefs desolations and destructions which a popular power hath brought along with it whereever it goâ—â—he better of the antient Established Government of the place Somewhat hath been already said to this purpose in our discourse and much more may be read in the Histories of most parts of the world to which I refer you and shall only mind you of some inevitable consequences which will follow such an innovation amongst our selves And first if it be true that the King hath no power to make himself absolute then we have no cause to apprehend an Arbitrary power in him and by consequence no reason to change But if the inclination of the people be such that they will take advantage of the King's want of power and introduce their own Government what moderation may we expect from men towards those who are to become their Subjects who shaking off all sense of Justice Law Religion and temper dare usurp the Soveraign authority over their natural Governour Where shall we appeal for mercy when having cut the throat of the most merciful King in Europe we expose our own to our ambitious and unmerciful Tyrants Where shall we expect compassion towards our selves when we shall become Parricides and Regicides to our father and our King Where shall we seek after Eqâ—ity when the House of Lords the supreme Court of Equity are most unjustly turn'd out of doors and what end of our miseries can we ever hope for when our Tyrants by our villanous Authors constitution have not only got all the Wealth and Militia into their hands but have perpetuated their usurpation by annual Parliaments never to end Who being Judges of their own priviledges p. 254. may regulate elections as they shall think fit p. 249. Sit Adjourn Prorogue and Dissolve as they alone shall judge expedient What more barbarous villany was ever propos'd and publish'd under a lawful and peaceable Government besides our own upon earth But suppose our poor Country thus enslav'd and our antient Kingdom turn'd into a Common-wealth what can our new masters do for us more than is already done Can our libâ—rties be greater as to our persons and estates It is impossible to suppose it Will our properties be more secur'd all the Laws that ever were upon earth under any Government cannot make them more inviolable Nothing then can remain but liberty in Religion which we call of
Conscience Shall all Religions as Papists Orthodox Protestants Presbyterians Independents and other Fanaâ—icks and Sectaâ—iâ—â— be promiscuously tolerated If not â—ll then injustice must be done to those who are restrained Who being all equally freeborn Subjects our grievances will not thereby be heal'd If all can any man of sense and sobriety imagine that men of such different principles aggravated too by strong animosities and prejudice will rejoice or be satisfied to see the tranquillity or propagation of those principles which they hate and believe most damnable Or should they establish one Church which should be the mother Church under whose discipline and government the other different Congregations were to be regulated would it be the Orthodox Church of England Ah Cousin let us consider what our Author declares p. 188. I will add says he the little credit the Church of England hath among the people most men being almost as angry with that Popery which is left amongst us in Surplices Copes Altars Cringes Bishops Ecclesiastical Courts and the whole Hierarchy besides an infinite number of idle useless Superstitious Ceremonies and the ignorance and viciousness of the Clergy in general as they are with those dogmâ—'s that are abolish'd So that there is no hopes that Popery can be kept out but by a company of poor people call'd Fanaticks who are driven into corners as the first Christians were and who only in truth conserve the Purity of Christian Religion as it was planted by Christ and his Apostles and is contain'd in Scripture Now Sir can we hope that an impudent Fanatick who dares publish all this even whilst our Government is yet intire will faâ—l to introduce his Geneva discipline and bring his poor Fâ—naticks out of their corners when he or his disciples shall be once themselves at the helm in our Palaces Will he suffer think you the orthodox Religion of the Church of England by Law established or its professors to enjoy those just rights and priviledges which they have done ever since the first plantation of Christianity among us Or shall we not be all crowded into those corners from whence he shall have fetcht his poor Apostolick Fanaticks Will the Papists have better measure than the Protestaâ—ts and will this be a setling the Nation and redressing its Grievances Must our gracious King and his lawful Successors who alone do and can and are willing still to protect us be deserted and shall we run headlong into the open jawes of those weeping waâ—ling canting praying still dissembling but ever devouring Crocodiles Dear Cousin oblige me not to speak more upon such a dismal subject the consideration of which must either break our hearts or raise our indignation beyond that temper which I would willingly retain Merch Sir assure your self that I heartily comply with you in all that you have said and symâ—athise with you no lâ—ss in your â—ust resentment than fears of their diabolical machinationâ— But we have a God most manifestly gracious to us in his wonderful preservation of his Majesties person and discoveries of their deep and damnable Conspiracies against him We have a King merciful loving and tender of uâ— oven beyond the ordinary extent of humane nature a Council wise Loyal and â—â—cumspect and a people universally â—…testing this Traiterous Association and all the consequences of it And for my own particular let that moment bâ— the last of my life when I comply with our false Authors detestable propositions Trav. Sir I am most truly glad to find you so well satisfied and will hope that the plainness and sincerity which I have used in obeying your commands will qualifie the tedâ—ousness and my want of judgment If there yet remains any thing which you would have me explain to you pray proceed for we have yet a little time left before Dinner Merch. Sir I find one lâ—â—f oâ— two â—urned down let us see what they contain and then I have done In p. 112. speaking of a certain Act of Parliament which it seems he cannot produce concerning answering all petitions before the Parliament could be dismissed he tells us That if there were nothing at all of this nor any record extant concerning it yet he must believe that it is so by the fundamental Law of the Government which must be lame and imperfect without it For it is all one to have no Parliaments at all but when the King pleases and to allow a power in him to dismiss them when he will that is when they refuse to do what he will Here you see Sir he couples granting petitions and a power in the King to dissolve Parliaments together The one he affirms the other he denies What have you to say to this Trav. Nothing Sir only desire you to remark as I suppose you have done all along the prodigious impudence and vanity of our Author who dares advance his own private opinion in matter of Law against several Statutes determining absolutly the contrary the universal consent of all Lawyers and continuâ—l practice of near six hundred years standing Merch. What say you next to the Title of the Duke of Moâ—â—outh Trav. Little our Author himself looks upon it as ridiculous and impossible to be supported Nor do I think that we are much beholden to his honesty or conscience alone for this frank declaration though indeed it is plain and agreeable to reason But he hates the thoughts of a single person and it is no injustice to him to believe from all that he hath said that if Jesus Christ should come upon earth again and pretend to govern according to the present constitution of â—ur Government under a Monarchiâ—â—l form he would find Platâ— Redivivus a Rebellious Spirit and ever the Son of Ambitious Lucifer For the faâ—lts of that unfortunâ—â—â— Duke I shall only say that if he â—aâ— have merit enough to be lamented he hath sence enough to thiâ—k himself the most unhappy of all mankiâ—d and must believe the presâ—rvâ—tion of his life the â—everest punishment Merch. Will you say nothing of the Duke of York Our Author you see speaks a great deal concerning him Something 's look fair but it is easie to perceive his maliâ—â— through the disguâ—â—â— Trav. No Sir his Royal perâ—â—â— and high merit are as much above my needless defence as our Authors little friâ—olous accâ—sation we have only therefore to pray that God would please to continue him long a blessing to these Nations and that we may be no less protected by his Council than defended by his more than Heroick â—oâ—râ—ge Merch. Pray give us then your opinion concerning our â—ure in general Trav. Where there is no disease there can be no â—ure besides I ever held it to be the greatest insolence and vâ—â—ity imaginable to presume to give counsel to the great Counnil of the Nation undestred and unauthorised And for my own part I have no â—…ner of pretence to â—o gâ—eâ—â— an 〈…〉 Have you any thing more Coâ—sin iâ— particular Merch. Sir
PLATO's Demon Or the STATE-PHYSICIAN Unmaskt Being a Discourse in Answer to a Book call'd Plato Redivivus By Thomas Goddard Esq Si unum Id spectamuâ— quam nefaria voce Lutorius Priscus mentem suam aures hominum polluerit neque carcer neque laqueâ—â— ne serviles quidem cruciatus in eum suffecerint Tacit. Ann. lib. 3. LONDON Printed by H. Hills Jun. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1684. To His ROYAL HIGHNESS JAMES Duke of YORK c. Royal Sir THe sense which all sober Men and good Subjects ever will retain of that Safety and Protection which the Nation owes to your Princely Wisdom and true born Courage obligeth us to look upon your Royal Person next to His most Sacred Majesty as Our Sword Our Shield and Our securest Hopes You are Our Head in Council and Our Arm in Battel and as we all ought to fight under your Royal Banner against the force and injuries of a Foreign Foe so is it Our Duty to oppose no less the Seditious Conspiracies and Traiterous Associations of Our little malicious scribling Enemies at home Amongst many of that deceiving or deceived Crew none seems more impudently extravagant than the Author of a Libel call'd Plato Redivivus The Book it self with the encouragement which I had to answer it I received about May last at Paris from that most Loyal and most Worthy Minister my Lord Preston What I have been able to do in this little time I most humbly offer at your Highness's Feet being fully assured that your Royal Highness will never refuse your Princely Protection to what Person so ever shall sincerely endeavour to defend according to his strength Our Regal Government with its just Rights and Prerogatives May Heaven continue your Royal Person a Blessing to these Kingdoms to the utmost extent of Providence and Mercy And may these Nations endeavour to deserve so great a Blessing by an unfeigned Respect Duty and Gratitude without limit Your Royal Highness's Most Obedient Most Faithful and Most Humble Servant T. G. TO THE READER THe inquity and licentiousness of the times are such that those wicked Principles which the most perverse of men in former days would hardly trust to their private thoughts In these men impudently dare to publish Amongst many Seditious Libels which of late have come abroad none is more insolently bold than that which bears the Name of Plato Redivivus The Author seems so hardened and confirmed in his Villanous Errors that he makes no scruple to offer Treason and Sedition for Reason and Loyalty He would make us believe that he is supporting Our Government whilst he endeavours utterly to destroy it Propounds ruine and slavery in a quiet and peaceable way And disapproves a Civil Page 219. War only because he doubts the success He beseeches the King therefore that he would be graciously pleased to lay down his Imperial Crown Tells Page 220. him it will make himself Glorious and his People happy Adviseth him to Page 249. quit his lawful Power that he may be great Divest himself of his Prerogatives and Liberties that he may be free and become a ward to a Popular Juncto that he may live at ease And that this their Pupil King may not doubt the kind intentions of his Indulgent Governours they promise to take immediately Page 258. the Administration of the Regal Authority into their own hands and make him as idle as he would prove an insignificant Prince Ease him of the trouble of making Peace and War abroad and Page 237. Officers and Ministers Page 239. at home Take away from him the disposal of the Militia by Sea and Land as also of his own Revenue as affairs too mean and below the consideration of such an absolute Monarch Disingage him from the Obligation of bestowing Honours and Titles upon Persons deserving well That Barons Earls and Dukes shall be henceforward created Page 252. by the Authority and Favour of Gentlemen Esquires and Knights And last of all that the Dignity of this their Glorious King might lose nothing of its lustre from the Communication of laborious business and the concerns of Government it is proposed that the King shall have no more Authority to Page 249. Call Adjourn Prorogue or Dissolve Parliaments That their Annual Session shall be perpetuated to all Eternity And least an Honest Sober and Loyal Parliament should in process of time undo what a Knavish Hot-brain'd and Traiterous Assembly had imposed upon us Page 249. Elections are to be regulated according to their own fancies and Honesty and Loyalty are to be perpetual marks of Incapacity And in a word when they are once elected It is concluded that they shall be Judge and Party in their own Cause Page 254. and govern themselves World without end according to their own Independent and most Soveraign Right of Power Now least these and many other Propositions howsoever illegal and extravagant should not be embraced as chearfully as they are loyally and honestly intended Our Author assures us That he hath proposed nothing in Page 258. his Discourse which intrencheth upon the Kings Hereditary Right These Worthy Reader are the just Principles and sound Foundation upon which Our Author pretends to build his new-found Government And that the Effect may answer so good and so great a Project He assures us that such a blessed Reformation will not fail to work Miracles The King shall be more absolute when he hath no Power at all than ever Page 249. he was or could be before The Lords more honourable when they receive their Honours from the People Page 256. 7. than when they were given by the King The People shall enjoy their Liberties and Properties more Secure now they are become their own Slaves than when they were the Kings Subjects No Fires in London but of their own making no Want in the Country no Wars abroad nor Troubles at home but of their own raising Presbyterians Page 186. and Papists like Peace and Righteousness shall kiss each other The Lyon shall lie down with the Lamb and there shall be no more enmity between the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman Nay such is the force of our wonder-working politick Apostle that provided his Tyrannical Popular Vsurpation may take place against a Lawful Natural the most Easie Monarchy upon Earth all Interests will be reconciled all Persons of whatsoever different Principles or Professions they be whether Jew or Greek a Samaritan or of the dwellers of Mesopotamia They shall all understand his charming and irresistible reasoning in their own Languages that is according to each man's design and the desires of his own heart Now although the extravagances fallacies of our vain Magisterial Author are obvious enough to all sober considering men yet since Error is more communicative than Truth and some men especially such as may be already prejudiced are more apt
and Honour in the Governour and Right of Priviledge and Protection in the Governed that the one may be secur'd against Oppression and the other from Violation And in this it was that Solon having probably in his Travels perused Part it not all the Law of Moses and nicking the Circumstances of the troublesome Affairs in Attica succeeded so well that as hath been said he had the Fortune to make such Laws and contrive such a Form of Government as for a time pleas'd both Parties Mer. Pray How did Athens prosper under these new Laws and this Innovation in the Government Trav. As for the Laws they continued in Force for many Years but for the Form of Government it succeeded as generally all Innovations do especially such as are popular for his mingled Democracy became even in his own Days a perfect Monarchy under the Reign of Pisistratus to whom even Solon himself was a constant Privy Councillor Mer. It surprises me extreamly that so wise a Man as Solon should fail so grosly in so material a Point as the Establishment of his new Government Trav. Sir you will cease to wonder when I shall tell you how the Case and his Circumstances stood Attica was divided into three principal Factions according to the three different Situations of the Country The Mountaineers were all for a Popular Government those of the plain or low Country affected an Aristocracy the Coasters and those who liv'd near the Sea-side desir'd rather a mix'd Government but all the People and poorer sort were so generally indebted to the Rich that they paid annually no less than the sixth part of all they had to their Creditors whence they were call'd Hectemorâ—i and many were so desperately engag'd that they were forc'd to sell their Children In these Distractions and Afflictions the more sober part did believe That nothing could so truly heal their Grievances as returning again under the Government of a Monarch whose Power being despotical might according as himself should think most just end all their Differences by easing the Poor without exasperating the Rich. In this Conjuncture Solon being a rich Merchant and a wise Man and living splendidly enough grew so popular that the common People invited him to take the Government wholly upon himself Two of the Parties were very zealous in it and the third seem'd well enough satisfy'd that the Management of all should be in the Hands of so prudent a Man as he was thought to be But Solon very unadvisedly refusing what was offer'd him suffer'd himself to be chosen after Philombrotus their Archon and then to gratifie the People who had been so respective to him he abolisheth their Debts and gave them a greater share in the Government than in good reason and Policy they ought to have had All their Law-givers and Politicians after Draco as Josephus cont App. observes aut Civitatem laudantes aut Reges that is affected according to their Circumstances or Inclinations a Popular or a Monarchical Government Mer. But this sure should rather have strengthned their popular Government than introduced another so contrary to it Trav. No Sir that 's a Mistake for when Men are unduely raised to the Helm who are born to obey or as Agrippa observes Qui hoereditariam obedientiam susceperunt their new Power like Strong Liquors intoxicates them their Heads grow giddy and they become more insolent and unsupportable even to their Fellows for whose sakes they receiv'd their Honours than the most absolute Monarchs generally have been This makes them easily shake off the servile Yoke and return to the Obedience of their natural Prince or else some aspiring Man amongst them usurps all So the popular Sedition of the Gracchi and some others of the Tribunes confirm'd the Authority of the Consuls and introduc'd at last even by the Consent of the People a Monarchical Government Mer. This Observation is most just and common enough amongst us nothing being more ridiculously proud and insolent than a Clown in Office But what became afterwards of Athens Trav. Pisistratus having govern'd very well about thirty five Years left the Kingdom to his Son Diocles who being murther'd by one of his Subjects the other Son Hippias was banish'd by the Rebellious Multitude and the Government fell again into the Hands of the People Then it became an Aristocracy and was governed wholly by the Senate Permittente populo imperium ad Senatum transfertur Then a Tyranny under thirty Governours each of which was more cruel than any of their former Kings had been Then they reduc'd the thirty to ten Tyrants then the Government came to the People again and in a Word passing through all the Changes and Forms which they could invent they had nothing certain and establish'd but continual Wars which lasted untill they became Slaves to the Macedonian Conquerour and at last remain'd Subjects to the Roman and Grecian as at present to the Turkish Emperours Mer. And was this the Condition of the celebrated Athenian Governments are their Wars and Changes the admirable Blessings which we are encouraged to seek after Trav. Sir I relate only matter of Fact as you will find at large in Thucydides Justin Plutarch and several other Authors make what use of it you think fitting Mer. The Use is plain which is To seek after Peace while I live and by the Grace of God endeavour as far as belongs to a Man of my Profession to support the present Government by Law established that we may avoid the Plague of Innovation and the Slavery of some Macedonian Conquerour One Word more dear Cousin How came Athens to produce such excellent Wits as it seems it did in those troublesome Days Trav. As our Miseries under the Tyranny of the rebellious House of Commons and Usurpation of a Plebeian produced several most learned Works or as the Persecution of the Primitive Church procur'd the excellent Volumes of many Holy Fathers and Martyrs Besides you must believe â—â—at Athens had some Intervals of Prosperity but that is still little to our purpose for I cannot think it reasonable that we in this Age should be oblig'd â—â— inâ—ur all the Misfortunes which Innovation generally produces in hopes that the next Age may be if possible more happy and flourishing tâ—â—n we are at present Mer. Sir I am hitherto perfectly well satisfied and â—eg your Pardon for the Trouble which I have given you but it will shorten our way very much in our Discourse hereafter One word concerning the famous Sparâ—â—â— Commonwealth and then I have done Trav. That will not cost us much time You must know then that Sparta was govern'd originally by Kings as Athens was They reckon nine successively to Lycurgus whose Power was also most arbitrary But then the Kingdom falling by Right of Succession to Charyllus Posthumate Son to Polybita Lycurgus his Uncle taking the Advantage of his Nephew's Minority gave the People Laws and made some Alteration in the Government which consisted principally in the
as they secure us from the danger of any Despotical Power or arbitrary Government which can rise up amongst our selves so they do no less protect the Person of our Supream Magistrate or King from all manner of Violence or Jurisdiction of the People Mer. In the next place then we come to an Aphorism which is That Empire is founded in Property Upon which he tells us he must build the most of his subsequent Reasoning Trav. Ay marry here 's Work indeed And no doubt but the Foundation being so solid the Building will last eternally But let us see in page 40. he gives us this Aphorism in Latine and then it runs thus Imperium fundatur in Dominio which lest we might not understand he tells us his meaning of Dominium is the Possession of Lands And that what Kings soever in former times had no Companion in the Sovereign Power they had no share likewise in the Possession of the Ground or Land Truly Cousin I do not remember to have met with such grave and serious Fooling in any Author besides himself But we will examine his Reasoning and his Aphorism as fully and impartially as we can And in the first place it is most necessary that we should define the Word Imperium which surely we cannot do more plainly than when we say That Imperium est jus Imperandi Empire is a Right of Command Now that this Right of Command should be fix'd or founded upon what in it self is incapable of receiving any Command or paying any Obedience I mean Land is so absurd a Proposition that it makes Empire an empty Name only and Sound for when you thunder your Imperial Laws through your hollow Rocks your shady Groves and Woods those stiff and stately Subjects of your new found Empire will pay no other Homage or Obedience than a Return of your Commands upon your own Royal Head by the Repetition of a foolish Eccho the only Subject which can entertain you with Discourse You in the mean time must remain like Midas amidst his Gold without Service or Sustenance except being wholly transform'd into an Ass or grazing like Nebuchadnezar amidst your fertile Pastures you might indeed in such case become a fat and lusty though a beastly Emperour But Cousin to be serious the great Folly of our Authors Aphorism will appear more demonstrable by putting a familiar Case or two and such as may shew us plainly upon what Empire is truly founded and upon what it is not Let us suppose then that the King should make some Nobleman or Gentleman Duke or Prince or if you will Emperour of some vast tract of Land in the Western Part of Terra Australis incognita which we will also imagine totally uninhabited What kind of Emperour do you think this Nobleman would be Mer. Truly Sir if he had no Subjects I think he would appear much such another kind of Prince as Duke Trinkolo in the Comedy Trav. You have hit upon a very proper Instance Mer. But pray Cousin why may not our Emperour have Subjects having Land to bestow Trav. Undoubtedly so he may but they must be procur'd one of these three ways either from his own Loins as in the old World that is from his Wife and Children or from Slaves such as may possibly be bought in some other Part of the World or from Free People whom he may probably carry over with him Mer. Very well and why may not the Land be peopled in time by his own Family especially if Polygamy be permitted as formerly it was and both himself and Sons take to themselves several Wives Trav. So it may Sir but this will not do our Business for his Empire in that case will not be founded upon the Possession of his Land but the Persons of his Children who become naturally his Subjects even when he did not possess one Acre of Land For God and Nature have so invested a Sovereign Right of Command in Fathers over their Children that no Power upon Earth can take that Right away 'T is true the Civil Law for the Good of all has reduc'd even Fathers themselves under the Civil Government who is still Pater Patrioe But naturally every Father is Emperour in his own Family Mer. I understand you Sir for Fathers having naturally a Sovereign Right of Command over their own Children if then he peoples a Country by his own Posterity the Possession of his Land gives him no more Power than what he had originally and from a higher Title too before It is plain but why may he not then stock his Land with Slaves from Guiney or other Parts of Africa Trav. O Cousin but properly speaking there is no Empire of Slaves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Aristotle lib. 8. de Rep. and from thence Grotius assure us That such a Government is not properly an Empire but an over-grown Family Qui ergo tali tenetur imperio populus in posterum non civitas erit sed magna Familia Besides Reason it self convinces us of this Truth for no Man is a Slave willingly and what we hold by force is not truly an Empire which as I said is Jus Imperandi but a Tyranny which always includes Injustice Mer. But by your leave may not a Man justly command his Slave Trav. Yes Sir as he may use his Oxe or his Horse and they are always look'd upon as part of our Personal Estate and pass accordingly But naturally or according to the Law of Nature which is Justice no Man is born a Slave Servi natura id est citra factum humanum hominum nulli sunt saith Grotius lib. 3. Whence the Civilians tell us Contra naturam esse hanc servitutem Lawfully indeed which is humane Institution Men become and are sometimes born Slaves but Subjects we are both by Law and Nature too All Politicians therefore and Civilians have made a Distinction between Subjects and Slaves the last are so by Accident and Misfortune and against their Will for the sole Benefit of their Lord and Master the others are Subjects by Nature and willingly continue so not only for the Honour of their Emperour King or Supreme Governour but for the peaceable and happy Subsistence of themselves So Tacitus distinguisheth them in these Words Non Dominationem servos seâ— rectorem cives cogitatet And Xenophon of Agesilaus whatsoever Cities he reduc'd under his Government he exempted from those servile Offices which Slaves pay their Lords and only commanded such things as were fit for Free-Men to pay their Supreme Governour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor are there or ever were there any such Kingdoms of Slaves For though the Turk and Tartars at present the Persians and generally all other Eastern Kings anciently govern'd despotically yet their Subjects always had a Civil as well as a Personal Liberty and were generally so far from being govern'd against their Wills that as Apollonius observes the Assyrians and Medes adâ—r'd their Monarchy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Jure proprietatis or In patrimonio imperantis that is properly or in Property or in chief or how else you please to render these Words in English Which Grotius in the same Chapter explains by a Jus regendi non aliunde pendens A Right of Government not depending upon any other humane Authority whatsoever Mer. But Sir since you have founded Empire upon a Supreme Right of Government or Power over Men how comes it to pass that we find a Right of Power and Priviledges and Government too so founded in the Possession of several Lands that the Possession of those Lands alone gives a Man several Rights and Prerogatives For example amongst us 't is said That whosoever hath the Right and Possession of the Barony of Burgaveny besides some others becomes thereby a Baron of England and enjoys those Priviledges which belong to it In France I have heard say That nothing is more common than for Men to receive their Titles according to their Lands whether Count Baron Marquess and so forth Is it not plain then That the Right of Command or Power which is Empire may be founded upon Property according to our Author's Interpretation that is the Possession of Lands Trav. I agree to what you have urg'd that is to say That several Priviledges and Right of Power are annexed to several Lordships or Terres Nobles that they have thereby haute basse Justice and their Jurisdiction extends to Life and Death Nay more in several parts of Italy and particularly in Lombardy there are several Imperial Feuds which Grotius seems to call Regna Feudalia which have almost as great Prerogatives as some other Kingdoms have They make Laws raise Taxes and mint Money as other greater Kingdoms do And yet all this makes little for our Author's Aphorism as by him interpreted Mer. The Reason if you please Trav. Because all those little Lordships or Principalities whether they were instituted at first by the Goths and Vandals or Lombards or granted afterwards by several later Emperours and Kings or both as is most probable yet they did and still do at this day depend upon a Superiour Power and pay Homage and Fealty for those Priviledges which they enjoy which is much different from Empire or a Sovereign Right of Power And yet even in this Case this subordinate Power is so far from being founded upon the Possession of all the Land belonging to the Feud which is our Author's Proposition that very often their Liberties depend only upon the old Walls of a ruinated Castie and a very inconsiderable Number of Acres which represent the whole Feud or Mannor the rest of the Land having been sold away and become the Property of others some small Rent only or Acknowledgment being reserv'd And after this manner the Supreme Power may as well tye Priviledges to a Post and grant the Possessor of that Post such Royalties as the Proprietor of such a Castle or Land Which is very far from proving that the Possession of Lands doth thereby originally create a Sovereign Right of Power Mer. Cousin I have heard and read too I think that the Sea hath formerly eaten up a considerable part of your ancient Patrimony and from thence it may be you are no Friend to Lands But for my part I will stand up for Land as long as I can and must therefore ask you Why those Rents or Acknowledgments were reserv'd if not to testifie that they came originally from the Lord and that thereby he still keeps up a kind of Sovereign Right to the Lands themselves knowing well enough that his Power according to our Author is founded upon them Trav. This yet signifies nothing for although the Reservation of these Rents or Services do preserve the Memory of the Benefactor and continue the Respect due from the Tenant yet this is personal only and hath no Relation to the publick Right of Power or Government For when this Rent was not reserv'd yet whosoever lives within the Jurisdiction of such a Fewd or Mannor is always subject to him who enjoys the Lordship So in England Services and Quit-Rents have been generally receiv'd and paid untill the late King and his present Majesty were pleas'd to dispose of them But to believe that this hath lessened his Sovereign Right of Government is a Fancy that sure cannot enter into the Head of any sober Man But let us put a plain Case Suppose the Kingdom of England were at any time obtain'd by absolute Conquest as I conceive it was more than once and that such Conquest gives the Conquerour a Sovereign Right not only to our real and personal Estates which we find to have been wholly in the hands of some of our Kings but also over our Liberties and Lives as may be fully seen in Grotius de Jur. B. P. Now Sir supposing a People in this Condition and having nothing of their own submit themselves and all they have to the Mercy of the Conquerour as the Carthaginians did to the Romans you will grant I imagine that this Conquerour is an Emperour to all Intents having an absolute Right of Power over the People and their Land also Mer. Yes certainly as long as he keeps himself and People in that Condition there cannot want any thing to make him an absolute Monarch Trav. But we will farther suppose That our Conquerour being of a more noble and more humane Temper than it may be our Author would have been orders diligent Inquisition to be made into the Value of his conquer'd Lands Which being done and enter'd into a Register such as we call Doomsday Book the Conquerour divides most of these Lands between the Conquerours and the Conquered some he returns to their former Owners upon certain Conditions or Services others he changeth To his Noblemen and Favourites he grants great Titles and Priviledges to the Gentry less and to the vulgar or common sort some small Possessions which with a little Labour and Diligence will enable them to live easily and peaceably the rest of their days All these become an Inheritance to themselves and their Heirs according to their several Tenures which the Conquerours have generally created and which we call Property These Sir being thus established and the Lands of the Kingdom setled after this manner the Conquerour or King himself reserves it may be a small part which we call Crown Lands and in Consideration of his Right of Conquest and those Benefits which he hath bestowed upon his People in granting them their Liberties Lives and Lands he continueth to himself the Power of making and abolishing Laws according as he shall think most fit and proper for the Peace Honour and Safety of his Government He creates Magistrates for the due Execution of these Laws who in his stead and by his Authority have a Power to judge between his Subjects and in some Cases between his Subjects and himself or his Attorney Besides these he retains the sole Power of making Peace and War of
disposing of the Treasury whether it be his own particular Revenue or such as may be granted for the Defence and Security of the Kingdom and such other Prerogatives as Sovereign Princes generally pretend to And after all he obligeth all his Subjects generally and in particular to pay him Homage and Fealty for the Land and Priviledges which they hold or have receiv'd from him and to bind themselves and their Heirs for ever to become true and faithful Subjects unto him their Liege Lord his Heirs and Successors for ever as may be seen at large in the Form of our general Oath of Allegiance and this under no less Penalty than the loss of our Lives Honour and Estates whatever they be Now Cousin after the Disposition of the Lands as hath been here suppos'd and this Establishment of the Government according to the good Will and Pleasure of him who is Master of all and the Consent and Confirmation of the People who have receiv'd those Lands and Priviledges can you believe that our Conquerour is less an Emperour than he was when he kept all the Lands in his own Hands and undistributed Mer. Methinks in good Reason in Justice and in Gratitude he should lose nothing of the Power which he hath reserv'd by reason of the Graces and Priviledges which he hath granted Trav. No sure Sir he rather acquires another Right and becomes doubly their Soveraign that is to say both King and Father of his Country for since Government is agreed even by our Author to have been instituted for the Good of Man certainly that Governour who doth the greatest Good is by consequence the greatest Emperour So Josephus in the Speech which Judah makes in the Behalf of his Brother Benjamin to his unknown Brother Joseph chief Minister of the Egyptian Kingdom observes That Power was given Men to do Good And by how much we extend our Bounty by so much we enlarge our Empire Ad servandos homines potentiam datam existimare quô pluribus salutem dederis hôc te ipsum illustriorem fore Mer. Cousin all this is very fine and seems indeed most reasonable and most just But I perceive we are not yet come to a right Understanding of the Case For if a Prince or Sovereign Monarch shall out of a Principle of Goodness or what you please entrust Part of his Power in the hands of the People let the Conditions be what they will when they are once possessed of that Power most likely they will think it reasonable to share the Government also or to use our Author's Expression p. 45. if the People have the greatest Interest in the Property they will and must have it in the Empire So if a Master of a Family shall think fit to arm his Servants to the Intent only and upon the express Condition that they shall never use them but in Defence of their Master and Family and that only according to his own Commands yet nevertheless if in process of Time the Servants shall believe that the Master doth not govern his Family for their mutual Advantage and Security it is ten to one but that having the Power in their Hands they will pretend to govern the Family as well as the Master nay and if the Master prove too obstinate turn even himself out of the Government and Family too Trav. Very well I did indeed expect that at last we should come to Club Law and that your convincing Arguments would end in the invincible Force of Powder Ball and Musket Pardon me Sir I do not speak this of your self for I know that according to our Agreement and for the Support of our Discourse you only personate our Author whose Words are They will and must have it in the Empire Now though will and must are not proper Terms amongst civiliz'd and reasonable Men yet nevertheless since we know that Deformity in some Countries and when in Vogue passeth for Beauty and a Disease grown Epidemical assumes the Name of Health according to that of Seneca Recti locum tenet error ubi fit publicus I shall endeavour to pull off the ugly Vizard and unmask our ignorant State-Physician and demonstrate first That it is not reasonable that those who have the greatest Interest in the Property or the Possession of the Lands according to our Author's Interpretation should have any Right of Power in the Government otherwise than what is subordinate and deriv'd from the Supream Magistrate Secondly That by having this Interest in the Property they have not thereby more Right no nor more Power than if they had it not Thirdly That all Sovereign Princes have a Right of Power over the Lands themselves notwithstanding the Property be divided amongst the People Fourthly That most Kings who have had the Sovereign Power have yet had many Companions and Sharers in the Possession of the Land And lastly I shall give an Answer to your Instance which you have produc'd concerning a Master and his Servant Mer. Dear Cousin Excuse the Liberty I take since you know we at first granted it to each other Besides the deciding these main Points will be in a great measure ending the Trouble which I give you And being confident that you will be able to make good what you have promis'd I shall reap the Advantage of your Pains and you the Honour and Satisfaction of confirming me and it may be many others in an Opinion which we were rather willing to believe than able to justifie Trav. Sir not to lose Time I shall begin with the first That it is not reasonable that those who have the greatest Interest in the Property should have any Right of Power in the Government except what is subordinate and deriv'd from the supream Magistrate To prove this we must make these two general Distinctions which are and ever were in all Governments whatever That is to say between the Governour and the Governed which must of necessity be two different Persons for as Plutarch observes in his Introduction to the Lives of Agis and Cleomenes one Man cannot be Master and Servant nor can he who commands be able at the same Time to obey So Grotius tells us Quod cogens coactum requirunt distinctas personas neque sufficiunt distincti respectus I never heard but that the People were always taken for the Governed To moderate and regulate whose unruly Passions and inclinations Government it self has been hitherto continued in the World and they are generally call'd the Body of the Kingdom The Governour has been ever understood to be a single Person or Counsel or more who are likewise properly call'd the Head Both form the Body Politick Right of Power is like the Soul and is seated in the Head whence dispersing itsvital Heat through proper Arteries and Veins it nourisheth and gives Motion to all the Body and every part of it The Body thereby is enabled to preserve the Head from Violence The Head alone commands and the Body performs
The Body cannot command nor hath the Head any Action nor can it possibly obey The Head separated from the Body destroys both Mark that Right of Power which is Empire hath no other Object or Subject than the Body and in its Exercise is properly and solely founded thereupon The Body parted from the Head is no more a Body but a Carcass And the People without a Supreme Governour is no more a People but a confus'd deform'd and unactive Multitude Mark that the People have no Life nor Power nor Motion but what they receive from the Head This is the constant Doctrine of the most Learned Authors who have ever treated of Government Mer. Sir I have often heard this Comparison made but if you allow that a Head may be compos'd of several Members as you seem to suppose when you say a Council or more we shall then easily agree For all we desire is That a Head may be chosen or made up out of the rest of the Members Trav. Necessity sometimes and Violence have compos'd such a monstrous Head over which also they have been forc'd to raise another Phantasm such as the State-holders in Holland the Doge of Venice or Duke of Genoua So I have observ'd in many places and particularly in the Prince's Gallery at Monaco two famous Heads which were so artificially contriv'd that at first Sight or at a Distance they have represented a humane Shape But upon a stricter Examination we have found them patch'd together of several sorts of Fishes Fowls Beasts or Insects Now besides that all unnatural and monstrous Productions have been observ'd by Naturalists to be generally of short Continuance so they do not at all destroy my Proposition which is That there must be a perfect Distinction between the Governour and the Governed and that howsoever the Head be compos'd whether of one Monarch or thirty Tyrants as in Athens or of five Hundred yet there the sole and total Right of Arbitrary Power doth and must reside Mer. I cannot approve of Arbitrary Power and I should think that in this Case there can be no Danger of it for the Body having by much the greater Force and Strength may not only refuse to obey what they do not approve of but if the Head should impose too obstinately by virtue of their Strength they may resist and easily reduce their Head to their own terms nay even to obey the Body Trav. They may so Sir and ever might since the Beginning of Bodies and ever may whilst Bodies continue in the World no matter whether they be fat or lean But the Consequence also ever was and ever will be Confusion Dissolution and the Destruction of both This puts me in mind of a Fable which Plutarch relates in the Life of Agis King of Sparta which if our Author would have impartially consider'd it might have stop'd the furious Current of his Popular Pen. The Story is this The Serpent's Tail who had been ever us'd to follow its imperious Head grew weary at length of this servile Complaisance disputes the Precedency and having brought the Body into its pernicious Faction the triumphant Tail begins to take the place and marches first But being no ways qualified for that Government which it had usurp'd it train'd the Head through Thorns and Briars through Waters and down Precipices till having totally blinded and disabled the Head and the Tail no ways able to support its Life both became a Prey and were swallow'd up by a Vultur who had watch'd the fatal Consequence of this unnatural and irregular Motion You see here the Effect of Force against a Right of Power which since it comes in my way it is most necessary we should distinguish for Power by Abuse is become I perceive another of our Authors equivocal Words All Power came originally from God Almighty for There is no Power but of God the Powers that be are ordained of God Rom. 13. 1. which must be always understood a Right of Power for God doth neither Violence nor Wrong Namque odit ipse vim Deus And if sometimes we have seen Violence and Force prevail against Power which is a just Authority it is only a mark of Permission in the Divine Providence as a Punishment for Sin not of Approbation Narratur in testimonium divinae Providentioe id permittentis non in facti humani approbationem These are the Words of Grotius The Body Politick is compos'd of Men that is to say Dust and Clay without Form or Action untill God breath'd into his Nostrils the Breath of Power and it became a living Soul Power then is a Ray of the Divinity it self And notwithstanding the insolent Mockery of our Atheistical conceited Author where there is a Sovereign Right of Power there is Jus â—…um So when God at the Request of Moses who was unable to govern so great a People without subordinate Officers instituted the Court of the Sanhedrim God took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and gave it to the seventy Elders which was this Right of Power and they began to prophesie a constant mark of this Right of Power which they deriv'd from Moses and was subordinate as generally the Constitutum is to the Constituens So when Saul was anointed King as a Mark of his undoubted Right of Power he prophesied amongst the Prophets So again when Moses growing old desir'd that God would set a Man over the Congregation that they might not be as Sheep without a Shepherd the Lord said unto Moses Take Joshuah the Son of Nun and lay thy Hands upon him and thou shalt put some of thine Honour upon him that all the Congregation of the Children of Israel may be obedient What should all the Congregation of the Children of Israel be obedient to but to the Commands of Joshuah who had received this Right of Command which is Power and Government immediately from the Hands of Moses Power then is the Soul of Government receiv'd from God himself It is a Spirit which gives Life to the Body but not the Body it self Power is like that nourishing Heat and Light of the Sun which we are sensible of by its Effects that is its Influence upon all sublunary Bodies by its Attraction Reverberation or Transmission through proper Vehicles Not by contact of the Body Nay we are assur'd that the Aether which is nearer the Sun is dark Power shews it self by its Effects that is Government which it produces by Transmission also of its Influence through proper Vehicles which are subordinate Officers whom it animates and inspires Power is invisible incomprehensible eternal Power never dyes and in its original it is Omnipotency which is God And when God himself had invested Moses with this Power he was pleas'd to tell him That he should be unto his Brother Aaron instead of a God Mer. Sir I am much pleas'd with this Description which you have given of Power And indeed since Government is one of the greatest and most
want of due Obedience the sole Consideration of their Force makes Men dare to disobey What then can be more irrational and absurd than that the Governour should by granting a Right of Power countenance their Violence and by giving a pretence to Disobedience make it more difficult if not impossible for himself to govern It is like uncurbing or laying the Reins upon the Necks of headstrong Horses which is against the Reason and Practice of all good Governments upon Earth Were the Beasts well tempered it were yet more practicable but by how much their Strength is dangerous by so much a stricter Hand ought to be kept over them What wise Pilot would ever trust the Helm into the Hands of an insolent Crew of Mariners Or What prudent Prince would submit his Scepter to the Will of arrogant Subjects whose Wills they themselves declare to be to govern equally if not superiour to the King If our Author had meant a subordinate Power we would easily have agreed and I think there are few People under Heaven who enjoy a larger Proportion of profitable and honourable Employments than our English Subjects do But an independent Right of Power is destructive to the Prince as well as People and would only serve the turn of a few pragmatical ambitious antiquated Politicians Mer. But Sir if the People have the Force as they have by enjoying so great a share in the Land and shall think it reasonable to have the Government also how will you help your self This is the main Point which you have not yet answered Trav. Have a little Patience for my Clock cannot strike Twelve all at once and this is the second point viz. That by having this Interest in the Property as our Author calls it they have not thereby a greater Power or Force or Strength than if they had it not And first you must admit that the Possession of Lands giving thereby no Right of Power as hath been sufficiently prov'd If then the People by Force only endeavour to procure to themselves this Right it is a formal Rebellion and what they shall obtain thereby is absolute Vsurpation But in the next place by having the Possession of these Lands suppos'd they are not more enabled to usurp this Power than if they had them not for the Strength of all Governments being eternally in the Persons of the Governed whether they be rich or whether they be poor it must follow that when they please to rebell no Governour or Governours whatever under Heaven can of themselves possibly reduce them for the Number is even in the most popular Government ten thousand of the Governed to one that governs And this is a natural irresistible Inequality of Strength which even in their natural naked Estate without other Arms than such as Nature hath given all Creatures according to their different Kinds puts them always in a Condition to destroy the Government when they please You must not urge that a great Number may probably preserve their Obedience and follow the Party of the Governours For it is already suppos'd in our Case that the greater Number having the Possession of the Lands must and will share the Government Might indeed if put in Execution will ever be too hard for Right and May and Ought can never stand against the Torrent of Will and Must This needs no farther Demonstration Ten Servants in a Family will easily turn their Master out of Doors though they have not the Propriety of one foot of Land upon the Earth Examples we need not However since our Author hath furnish'd us with one as he hath done many others against himself I shall mind you of it The Turk he tells us who is absolute Proprietor of all the Lands in his vast Empire is not yet thereby so secure but that the Palace and Seraglio have often become the Shambles of those Princes Mer. But Sir that he tells you has been done by his Janizaries which he calls a Mercenary Army and not his natural Subjects But could he introduce his Timariots into the places of those Janizaries this horrid Flaw and Inconvenience in the Government had been wholly avoided Trav. But why does he entertain these Janizaries if not to preserve him from the Violence of his discontented and numerous Subjects And why dare the Janizaries act these horrid Murders if not because they know themselves too strong And what Security can he give that his Spahis would not do the same thing if their Prince should endeavour to keep them in too severe Subjection Never sure did any sober Author maintain Propositions so irrational nay insomuch that their contrary is true What People are more happy and quiet than those who possessing a reasonable Proportion of Lands live in Plenty and enjoy in Security the Fruit of their own Labours In this our Nation is blessed particularly above all others for setting aside Ambition what do we want to make us happy And what hinders our Happiness from being secure who can offend us and remain unpunish'd Our Cattel our Houses our Lands are inviolable our Persons as free as the Air which is it self restrain'd within certain Bounds and we as all Men ought to be within the Compass of just and reasonable Laws What People who are at ease would of themselves disturb their own Happiness And what oftner occasions Rebellion than the Pretence of Misery and Oppression What made the People of Athens according to our Author endeavour a Change in the Government but their great Incumbrances and Debts to the Nobility What made the People of Rome mutiny against the Senate but the want of their Lands And what occasion'd the Barons Wars in King John and Henry the Third's Time but the Severity of their Tenures and want of their Rights and Priviledges as they pretended What indeed begins all Wars on the Peoples side but Oppression and what establisheth Peace but Ease and Plenty Our Author 's divine Machiavel is wholly of our Opinion and tells us amongst other things That if a Prince will preserve to his Subjects their Possessions their Priviledges and their Women he runs no manner of Danger but such as may proceed from the Ambition of a few which yet he assures us we may easily and by many ways prevent In odium omnium maximè adducunt bonorum direptio suarum raptus mulierum Quotiescunque bonis parcitur multitudinis honori praeclarè secum agi ducunt homines Id duntaxat fit reliquum oppugnandum ambitio nimirum paucorum quoe multis modis nulloque negotio reprimi potest Prin. cap. 19. Mer. Sir I can very hardly grant you this Point it being one of our strongest Holds which we must defend to the last Drop of Blood I must tell you therefore that though the greatest Number such as I must own is ever compos'd of the People be always capable of usurping the Government over the Governour who is indeed no more than a single Man against a whole
Nation in point of Strength yet whilst the Tenures are preserv'd such as were formerly in England the Prince had a stricter Tye upon the People than when having relinquish'd them he hath no other Obligation upon them than his Parchment Right of Power and if you please their Oaths of Allegiance both which are cancell'd in a Moment while the Lands remain eternally in the People Trav. I have already told you That publick Right of Government or if you will the Right of publick Government doth not in the least depend upon Tenures for they are only particular Services and Royalties which Princes have sometimes thought good to reserve to themselves more or less according as they alone have thought fit and may be alter'd or relinquish'd without diminishing their Publick Right of Government over the Nation they being such as regard rather the private Person of the King as Lord of a Mannor than his Politick Capacity as Supreme Magistrate or Governour of the State And indeed many of these Services and Tenures were rather very inconvenient and burthensome to the People than beneficial to the Government Many such were anciently known in England and Scotland as well as France Amongst others what was more inhumane than that the Lord should have a Right to lye with his Tenants Wife the first Night they married which in France they call Droit de Jambage Some Services were very ridiculous and some extravagant So I have heard of a Tenure in France by which the Tenant is oblig'd at certain Times to drive a Cart with twelve Oxen round the Court of the Mannor House In which time if any of the Oxen happen to dung in the Court the Cart with the twelve Oxen was forfeited to the Lord of the Mannor but if none of the Oxen should dung untill they were driven out of the Court then the Lord was to receive only one Egg. Now how do these and many other such Services relate to a Right of Government So many Mannors were held of the King to accompany him in his Wars in England or in France or elsewhere some were obliged to carry his Spear some his Sword others his Helmet and such like which are all merely private Obligations and which any private Man might reserve upon consideration of Lands given It is true the King had then a stronger Tye upon particular Persons than since he hath released them But this I say hath no influence upon his Publick Right of Power for the Supreme Magistrate is always notwithstanding any such Release Master both of our Estates and Persons as far as they are necessary for the Preservation of the Government So you see Care is taken that all Lands shall pay their Quotas towards Horses and Footmen which is in use at this day which Forces so paid we call the Militia His Majesty may press Souldiers and by the Consent of his great Council the Parliament charge our Estates and Persons with such Sums as shall be thought expedient for the Occasion And this brings me to the third Point which is That all Sovereign Princes have a Right of Power over the Lands notwithstanding the Property be divided amongst the People And this proceeds from the Dominium Supereminens which is eternally in all Supreme Magistrates or Magistrate whatsoever whose Duty it is to look after and by all means secure the Preservation of the Whole in which every particular is involv'd Nor is it a sufficient Objection to say That Laws or Impositions may lye very heavy upon particular Men if such an Arbitrary Power should rest in any Government for Laws cannot be always made so easie but that Occasions may happen which may make them seem very hard to some Id modò quoeritur si majori parti in summo prosint Hence Grotius from Thucydides remarks an excellent Passage of Pericles to this purpose Sic existimo saith he etiam singulis hominibus plus eam prodesse civitatem quoe tota rectè se habeat quam si privatis floreat utilitatibus ipsa autem universim laboret Qui enim domesticas fortunas bene collocatas habet patria tamen eversa pereat ipse necesse est c. All which Livy thus briefly expresses Respublica incolumis privatas res salvas facile proestat Publica prodendo tua nequicquam serves That whilst the Commonwealth is safe in general our particular Concerns may be also easily secur'd But by deserting the publick Interest of the Nation we do thereby no ways preserve our own Nothing therefore seems more reasonable and indeed necessary than that the Government should have always a Power to compell every particular Subject who standing upon their private Rights and Properties would thereby suffer the Whole to be destroy'd For though naturally every Man hath a Right to maintain what is his own and by consequence might oppose whosoever would endeavour to take his Property from him yet Grotius tells us That Government which is instituted for the publick Tranquillity of the Whole or Tranquillitas publica in qua singulorum continetur acquires thereby a more Sovereign Right even â—ver our Persons as well as Possessions than we our selves can pretend to that is as far as shall be necessary for obtaining that great end of publick Preservation Civili societate ad tuendam Tranquillitatem instituta statim civitati jus quoddam majus in nos nostra nascitur quatenus ad finem illum id necessarium est Whence Seneca observes That the Power of all is ever in the Supreme Magistrate but the Property remains nevertheless in the Hands of particular Subjects Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet ad singulos Proprietas And so as hath been said the King in Parliament hath a Right to dispose of our Estates and Persons as shall be thought necessary for our publick Security And where Sovereign Princes act without Parliaments they have in themselves the same Authority I have spoke already of the Power which the Government hath over our Estates and for our Persons Grotius hath furnish'd us with a Case very strong to shew the great Extent of Sovereign Authority He puts a Question Whether an innocent Citizen may be abandoned ad Exitium even to Destruction for the Common Good Without doubt says he such an innocent Citizen may be so abandon'd Dubium non est quin deseri potest And going still on how far such a Citizen is oblig'd to deliver himself he concludes That he may be forc'd to it and sacrific'd too to prevent an imminent Mischief both against his Will and entirely innocent Quare in nostra controversia verius videtur cogi posse civem for saith he Though one Citizen cannot compell another to any thing more than what is strictly just according to Law yet the Superiour hath a lawful Authority as Superiour to force an innocent Man to suffer for the Common Good Par parem cogere non potest nisi ad id quod jure debetur strictè dicto
At superior cogere potest etiam ad illa quae quaelibet virtus praecipit quia in jure proprio Superioris quâ superior est hoc est comprehensum We find even in the Common-wealth of Holland so much envied and applauded by Men who are given to change that in the late Wars with England and France they taxed Mens Purses with such heavy Contributions that they were almost as much dissatisfied with their Governours at home as afraid of their Enemies abroad and all this was done much against the Wills of almost every particular Subject Nay more I have heard say That their Fond or Principal the greatest part of their Estates for want of Land consisting in Money is so involv'd in the great Bank that they can never retrieve their Principal again But their Estates being wholly at the Dispose of the Government when that falls they perish I confess I do not know of any Christian Kingdom where a more arbitrary power is exercis'd But it is it seems necessary for their affairs that it should be so Yet nevertheless it is no rule for our imitation their circumstances being extremely different from ours Mer. I perceive you will not be perswaded to let us enjoy our properties and our share in the government together notwithstanding our author assures us that we will and must have it But pray Sir setting aside your reasons why you have taken from us our shares which indeed at present I know not how to confute let me prevail with you to be rul'd in this matter by examples of other great Kingdoms And you know Plato Redivivus tells us for certain that those Kings who had no companions in the Soveraign power had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of the land But if the Senate or people or both did share the land they shar'd also in the Administration of the Soveraignty And pray why should we who enjoy no small possessions be excluded Trav. Cousin under-favour your Plato redivivus is a most impudent Ghost For provided it serves his turn he makes no Conscience of advancing downright falshood for undeniable matter of fact which will appear more fully hereafter We will begin with the Scythians who contending with the Egyptians for antiquity have been thought the first people which inhabited the earth after the sloud The people were not known in History before their Kings whose power also was arbitrary So sure it is that the first known Governments upon earth were Monarchical Principio rerum gentium nationumque Imperium penes Reges erat says Justin And immediately after Populus nullis legibus tenebatur arbitria Principum pro legibus erant And yet we find the ground so common to all that every man was as much Proprietor as the King himself Hominibus inter se nulli sines neque enim agrum exercent nec domus illis ulla armenta pecora semper pascentibus per incultas solitudines errare solitis Every man had a propriety to as much ground as was necessary for himself and his cattle which also he chose as he thought most convenient Yet so far were the people from pretending any share in the Government that no Kings were more absolute than the Scythians nor did any enjoy their Government longer And if we follow them into the upper Asia which they totally conquer'd we do not find their Kings pretending to one foot of the land Mer. What good then did their conquest do them if they did not enjoy the possessions of the conquered Trav. They made the same use of it as all Conquerors generally have done that is to say leaving the lands to their proper owners they only exacted a Tribute which was gathered amongst themselves Yet nevertheless contrary to our Author's Proposition they always retain'd the Empire or Government over them and that for no less time than 1500 years Asiam perdomitam vectigalem fecere modico tributo magis in titulum imperii quam victoriae praemium imposito His igitur Asia per mille quingentos annos vectigalis fuit Pendendi tributi finem Ninus Rex Assyriorum imposuit Ninus then was the first who freed the Assyrians from their Tribute and the Scythian Empire Nor do we read that he enslaved them more under his own But leaving them their possessions entire yet preserving always the Supreme right of Government required only such Contributions as himself thought necessary After the Assyrian Empire that of the Medes began But no alteration can I find in the Property of the lands On the contrary we read that the Persians became only Tributary to the Medes Sed civitates quae Medorum tributariae fuerant mutato imperio conditionem suam mutatam arbitrantes à Cyro defecerunt That Those Persian Cities which were tributary to the Medes under Astyages revolted from Cyrus But to leave no dispute in the case Xenophon in his Cyri Inst l. 4. tells us in plain words that Cyrus bid the Assyrians be of good heart that their condition should be no ways altered but in the change of their King That they should enjoy their houses and their lands as formerly they did and have the same right over their wives and children Cyrus victos Assyrios jubebat bono esse animo eandem ipsorum sortem fore quae fuerat mutato tantum Rege Mansuras ipsis domos agros jus in uxores in liberos ut fuisset hactenus This I think shews most clearly that the people enjoy'd the Property in their lands not only under the Medes but the Persians also And yet they were so far from sharing any part of the Government that all men agree no Princes to have been more absolute than the Medes and Persians Now if this be true as sure it is for Xenophon was a very good Judge who wrote particularly the History of Cyrus what an ignorant or what an impudent Author is Plato Redivivus who boldly affirms p. 52. that Cyrus by name and other conquering Monarchs before him took all for themselves From Asia let us travel into Egypt and by the way we will take notice of the Government of Sodom and Gomorrha and those five Kingdoms which we read in Scripture to have been subject to Senacherib King of Assyria for twelve years But we do not find that either before or after their defection the King of Assyria had any right to their lands but only a tribute which they at length refus'd to pay With the History of the Bible Josephus agrees who tells us chap. 10. Eodem tempore cum Imperium Asiae penes Assyrios esset Sodomitarum res tam opibus quam numerosa juventute florebat ut a quinque Regibus administrarentur donec victi ab Assyriis Tributum eis solvebant The Egyptian Kings notwithstanding the conceit of our Author and it may be of some other his Antimonarchical Accomplices were as absolute as any Kings of the East Egyptiorum Reges saith Grotius ut alios Reges Orientis summo imperio
were to protect them not only in all Law Suits but in what other occurrences might happen to them The Plebeians also were styled Clientes or their Clients who besides the Protection of their Patrons received also Lands from them under certain conditions which remained many years inviolable for example in case the Patron should be taken by the Enemy the Client was to contribute towards his Ransome as also towards the advancement of their Daughters in their Marriages they were not to inform or give testimony against their Patrons or if they did they were accursed and condemned as Traitors Diis inferis devovebantur proditionis erant rei besides many other obsequious duties and respects so we read that Appiuâ— Claudius gave Lands to his Clients even in the very Infancy of the Roman Government Nor was this jus tutelare personal only but it was also Gentilitium that is it extended it self into whole families as for instance some of them with their whole Generation were Clients under the protection of the Aemilian some under the Julian and others under the Claudian Families This constitution was of great use to the Common-wealth for the credit which the Patricii had with their Clients was sufficient oftentimes to appease their popular disturbances who yielding either to the Authority or Entreaties of their Patrons were brought to acquiesce though with some little prejudice to their own right and this continued many Ages until the ambition of the Tribunes interrupted this good correspondence between the Princes and the People and so honourable did the name of Client grow that many States and Governments who have voluntarily committed themselves to the fidelity or protection of the Romans did not disdain that Title Thus we see the Lands even within the narrow compass of the first Roman Monarchy divided amongst the Princes and the People which Lands so given to the latter were called Clientela's and accordingly we may observe under Servius Tullius their sixth King a Register of their particular Estates Regis solertia ita est ordinata respublica ut omnia Patrimonii dignitatis aetatis artium officiorumque discrimina in tabulas referrentur Flor. c. 6. So we read of the Confiscation of the particular lands of Tarquinius superbus and yet Romulus and his successors were as absolute Monarchs as any of the Caesars have been and Julius Caesar himself by Will deviseth part of his own private estate to the Romans Thus was property or the possession of Lands divided amongst the people during the first Roman Monarchy thus it continued under the Roman as well as Graecian Empire thus it remains at present in the German Empire and thus it is established in all the most Christian Monarchies upon earth and not to forget our own Country I must observe out of a learned Author that our ancient British Kings who were as absolute as any made distribution also of their Land amongst their Subjects after this manner one paâ—t they gave to the Archflamens to pray for the Kings and their posterity a second part to the Nobility to do them Knights service a third to the Husbandmen to hold of them in Sâ—â—â—age and a fourth to the Mechanicks to hold in Bâ—rgage l. MS. Hâ—st Brit. And yet Plato Red. dares obtrude this proposition upon us p. 40. That in all states if the King had no Companions in the Soveraign Power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of the Lands But for further satisfaction let us consider the Government of Gods people or the Kingdom of the Jews I think all will agree that the Hebrews were proprietors of their Lands and held them upon as good a Title as the people of England do theirs even at this day We find in that History a particular account of the distribution of the Lands according to their Tribes who were at that time under a Monarchical Government whether we look upon God Almighty as their King who according to Grotius Hobbs Junius Brutus and all good Authors was Rex peculiaris Israelitarum or as Brutus tells us De jure Mag. p. 226. Ab initio Deus ipse aternus ejus Monarcha fuit non eo tantum nomine quod ipse rerum omnium supremum dominium obtinuit sed singulari quodam modo nempe c. Or whether under their High Priest who was Gods vicegerent except when he raised them up a Judge We hear of no Tenures or services amongst them other than such as all Subjects upon earth are oblig'd to perform for the honour of the King and publick safety It is plain from the story of Ahab in the case of Naboth's vineyard that Naboth had a clear right and property in the possession of his lands and that their Kings had no authority in their private capacities to force any Subject so much as to sell his land upon reasonable conditions Yet nevertheless neither the Kings of Persia nor of Egypt nor of any part of the East were more absolute than the Kings of Israel were and yet none had a less proportion in the possession of the lands Mer. Sir I shall grant you all except this That the Kings of Israel were absolute which I can hardly believe especially since our Author tells us the contrary and instances in the Sanhedrim the Assembly of the Tribes and Congregation of the Lord who all had a share in the Government as they had in the property Trav. I confess several zealous Commonwealths men have asserted this false doctrine and amongst others their old Coryphaeus Junius Brutus But I find no colour of pretence for this their assertion but we will examine the case as fully as this occasion will permit and refer you afterwards to what I have writ more at large concerning this point elsewhere And first it is necessary that we should agree what we mean by an absolute Monarch which is indeed a point rather controverted than clearly decided by any Author that I have yet met withal Sallust thinks it consists in an exemption from all humane jurisdiction Impune quidvis facere hoc est Regem esse Others that to be absolute a Prince ought to govern peremptorily according to his will So Juvenal Sic volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas A third sort have declar'd that King truly absolute who giving Laws to others is subject to none himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to command without being oblig'd to give a reason why or wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aeschylus saith and again Rex est suo utens jure nulli obnoxius Hobbs will have it consist in the subjection of our wills to that of the Prince Homo ille vel concilium illud cujus voluntati singuli suam voluntatem subjecerunt summam potestatem sive summum imperium sive dominium habere dicitur Grotius whose opinion I must always esteem very much tells us that the most absolute or highest power is of that Prince whose actions are not accountable
King of Judah to Zachariah the Prophet And they Conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the command of the King 2 Chron. 24. 21. and several other instances there are On the other side when the Sanhedrim intreated Zedekiah that they might put Jeremiah to death by his own single authority he preserv'd him against them Merch. Under favour Sir I have heard this very case of Jeremiah urg'd against the Soveraign power of the Hebrew Kings and produced as an instance to shew the independent right of the Sanhedrim For when they sollicited the King that they might put him to death Zedekiah answered Lo he is in your power the King is not he that can do any thing against you Trav. I confess I have read this example in Junius Brutus and know not which most to wonder at his impudence or his impious knavery The words in the Vulgar Translation which Scaliger esteems the best run thus Ecce in potestate vestra est nam contra vos Rex nihil potest In hoc negotiorum genere scilicet saith Grotius But our brute Author by an unparallell'd wickedness perverts both the sence and words of the Holy Scripture and translates it Ipsis contradicere nulla in re posse And so would make the Sanhedrim so absolute that the King could not contradict them in any thing but we shall discover his imposture by the History it self and practice of Zedekiah even in this very case And it is first certain that the King meant nothing more by this answer than that he left Jeremiah to be Tried by his Judges according to Law And indeed as his affairs stood he was unwilling to displease the Princes in a case which they thought so nearly concerned the good of the people and safety of the King which they believ'd was indanger'd by the discouraging Prophecies of Jeremiah Rex Zedechias says Josephus nè in Principum invidiam tali tempore incurreret voluntati eorum resistens permisit eis ut de Propheta Jeremia quicquid libent facerent lib. 10. c. 10. Yet our Villanous Presbyter is so shameless an Author as to affirm from hence that the Sanhedrim was superiour to the King Rege superiorem q. 3. p. 73. Nay and could judge the King himself Illi Regem judicare possunt which I am confident was never found in the whole History of the Bible But to return to this case We find first that Zedekiah had by his own authority imprison'd Jeremiah ch 30. v. 3. And Jeremiah the Prophet was shut up in the Court of the prison which was in the King of Judah's house For Zedekiah King of Judah had shut him up Next we may observe that the Princes applied themselves to the King that they might have leave to put the Prophet to death and that in terms respectful enough Jer. 38. 4. Therefore said the Princes unto the King We beseech thee let this man be put to death Now what needed this impertinent and indeed abusive complement to the King if the whole authority was in the Sanhedrim or Princes themselves But to take away all manner of dispute we find not only application made to the King to release Jeremiah and his own order thereupon Ebedmelech went forth out of the Kings house and spake unto the King saying My Lord the King these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the Prophet whom thou hast cast into the dungeon c. Then the King commanded Ebedmelech the Egyptian saying Take from hence thirty men with thee and take up Jeremiah the Prophet out of the dungeon before he dies cap. 38. I say besides this we read also in the same chap. That Jeremiah made his address to the King that he might not dye which most assuredly being a Prophet of the Lord he would never have done had it not been in the Kings power to have granted his request or had it been an infringement of the lawful power of the Sanhedrim And thereupon Zedekiah without asking leave of the Elders promis'd him that he should not dye and in terms which sufficiently express his Soveraign authority Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah If I declare it to thee wilt thou not surely put me to death So Zedekiah the King swore secretly to Jeremiah saying As the Lord liveth that made us this soul I will not put thee to death neither will I give thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life v. 15 16. I think these words need no explanation I shall only add this remark to shew the fourberie of our Author which is That in case this story could have pass'd according to his own sense of it yet it would not have prov'd what he design'd it should have done For Zedekiah at that time was not absolute as the former Kings of Judah had been but was tributary to the King of Babylon And when the year was ended c. King Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah King over Judah and Jerusalem 2 Chron. 36. 10. Which is confirm'd by Josephus in these words Nebuchadnezzarus exprobat ingratitudinem Zedechiae quod cum à se accepisset regnum accepta potestate abusus esset in authorem beneficii It being then most clear that the Hebrew Kings were absolute or enjoy'd a Soveraign right of power and yet notwithstanding this the property was divided amongst the people who had yet no share in the right of Government but what was subordinate I must conclude that Plato Redivivus is no less impudent and false than his master Junius Brutus was when he affirms universally that if the people had a share in the property they had a share in the Government or where the King had no companions in the Soveraign power he had no sharers likewise in the Dominion or possession of lands Mer. Sir So many men amongst us have asserted an Independent right of power in the Sanhedrim that I cannot yet get off from that opinion unless you can shew me somewhat more particular than yet you have done concerning their institution and that they receiv'd not their power from God but from man which in such case will make them subordinate and subjects Trav. I have already told you that at the request of Moses God was pleas'd to admit of such a Council or Court of Judicature and that then they receiv'd their power not only from the hand of Moses but even from that power which Moses himself had and no new power immediately from God But if this be not plain enough I will offer you another passage by which we shall determine the two main points First whence the Court of Seventy Elders received their authority And secondly How large it was In the first of Deut. v. 13. you shall find Moses thus speaking to the people Take ye wise men and understanding and known amongst the Tribes and I will make them rulers over you So I took the chief of the Tribes wise men c. and I charg'd the Judges
at that time saying c. Here you see the authority proceeding wholly from himself and for its extent you read immediately after that Moses reserves all appeals to himself which is the undoubted mark of Supreme Authority And the cause which is too hard for you bring it unto me and I will hear it And so you see in the forementioned cases of David Jehosaphat Zedekiah and others that the practice was conformable to the institution where the Kings of Judah exercised their Soveraign power even in those cases which belonged most particularly to the knowledge of the Sanhedrim This Brutus confesses in express words who contradicts himself as such false men do in most that he says Propterea boni Reges quales David Jehosaphat caeteri quia omnibus jus dicere ipsi non potuissent etsi in gravioribus causis ut è Samuele apparet supremum sibi judicium recipiebant nil prius vel antiquius habuerunt quam ut Judices bonos peritos ubique locorum constituerent q. 3. p. 89. Of these Judges the greater Court was call'd Sanhedrim Gedola the Supreme Senate the lesser Sanhedrim Ketanna the lesser and inferiour Court The lesser was again subdivided and out of these were Judges distributed into most of the Cities for the ease of the people From them appeal might be made to the Court or Sanhedrim Gedola which always was at Jerusalem and who had many priviledges above the others possibly not much unlike our House of Lords at this day Now Cousin if I understand Latin and English I think the case is plain that the Hebrew Kings notwithstanding the Sanhedrim had the sole Soveraign right of power But I refer all to your better Judgment Mer. I have nothing to reply against Scripture arguments especially when they are so clear as these seem to be I am only afraid that this great trouble which I have given you hath taken away the pleasure you might have had in viewing our Country and talking of some other more diverting subject But presuming still upon your goodness I must desire that you would compleat the Reformation which you have more than begun in me and by giving me some account of the Gothick Government which it seems hath prevail'd in a great part of Europe you may make me capable of defending the doctrine and the good constitution of our Government against all hot-brain'd and ambitious innovators Trav. Sir I have no greater pleasure than in obeying your commands nor have I lost thereby the advantage of this fine evening The Goths therefore if we may believe Jordanes who was himself of that race and whom Procopius writing only of the latter Goths no where contradicts broke out of the Island Scanzia or Scandinavia and with all their substance men women and children advanc d south-east And after several Skirmishes and Victories by the way they at last sat down about the palus Moeotis Here they inhabited many years and following the warmth of the Sun spread Eastwards towards the South of Scythia and the lower Asia Their Government all this while which lasted many hundred of years was an absolute Monarchy and the Tenth part of the lands were generally appropriated to the support of their Prince who descended from father to son as at this day amongst us and in Ottofrising you have a long catalogue of their names and an account of their memorable actions But in process of time those Northern people propagating very much under a warmer climate than their own a great detachment past over into Europe whence came the distinction of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths which is as much as to say the Southern and the Western Goths The latter spread themselves over Germany and France and erected several Kingdoms Their Government was Arbitrary enough and somewhat more than that of the Germans Paulo jam addictius regnantur quam caeterae Germanorum gentes saith Tacitus de moribus Germ. Yet we find the Germans themselves under a Kingly Government the lands divided and yet neither their Noblemen nor people had any other share in the Government than by way of Council or a subordinate authority for the Administration of Justice whch is much different from a right of Power or Command Agri pro numero cultorum ab universis per vices occupantur quos mox inter se secundum dignitatem partiuntur These were like great Farms which they chose according as the situation pleas'd them Colunt discreti ac diversi ut fons ut nemus ut campus placuit Their Councils were compos'd of the Commoners and of the Nobility but were distinct and the Noblemen had the greatest interest De minoribus rebus Principes consultant de majoribus omnes Ita tamen ut ea quoque quorum penes plebem arbitrium est apud Principes pertractentur But in all these elder Governments we must consider their circumstances which were confus'd and much different from those which are at this day established generally all the world over The people were more barbarous than now they are unsetled and much addicted to wars Whence they appear'd more like the children of Israel in the Wilderness than the people of God in Jerusalem And I cannot think that their polities though they make little against us ought to be propos'd by any sober man as examples for our imitation We come now to the Ostrogoths as nearer to our time and purpose A great body then of these passing the Danube possessed themselves of Hungary or Pannonia and some of Thrace where they inhabited sorty eight years In Hungary they had their Kings and paid them too such an awful obedience that they esteemed it the greatest impiety so much as to whisper any thing that detracted from their honour Solummodo susurris lacerare nefas ducunt And if by chance any of the Noblemen should have offended their King though in never so small a matter and even unjustly accus'd yet the poorest Scullion belonging to and sent by the King had a power though alone to seize that Nobleman encompassed and guarded by all his friends and adherents And thus without Messenger or Serjeant both imprisoneth or otherwise punisheth the unhappy offender according to the Order of the Prince whose Will passeth amongst all for an unquestionable Law Quod si aliquis ex comitum ordine regem vel in modico offenderit quando etiam iniustè infamatus fuerit quilibet infimae conditionis lixa a Rege missus Comitem licet satelliâ—ibus suis stipatum solus comprehendit c. Sola Principis voluntas apud omnes pro ratione habetur Ottofris de reb gest Fred. primi lib. 1. ca. 31. Now if Plato Redivivus will needs produce ancient customs among the Goths and impose them without any farther consideration upon us I hope he will give me leave also to offer the example of these Loyal Ostrogoths which I am sure if duly followed would prove a better cure for us whatever our disease be than
us Trav. Sir you may easily believe that if the people were Masters of the Government they would not fail to give themselves large proportions of the lands But this made their Government so irregular and subject to so many inconveniencies that instead of being setled according to the exact rules of the Polities as our Author thinks it was most insupportable and not capable of any long subsistence And in effect we see both their name and government so totally extinct that those people who possessed almost all Europe are not now to be found in any part of it Such was the case of the once flourishing Kingdom of the Jews which when the Seditious people as Menahemus Eliazarus and others endeavoured to set up a popular Government was utterly destroy'd and of two such mighty Nations nothing is left but some few wandring remains or old rustick monuments which serve only to testifie that they once have been I confess had the authority of the Gothick Kings been Absolute and Independent I know no great inconvenience that their distribution of the lands could have produced Yet that too ought to be done with discretion and good consideration or many mischiefs and ruine in the end may ensue To this purpose our Author I thank him hath put us in mind of a memorable example For Plutarch tells us that Cleomenes King of Sparta endeavouring to make himself Absolute slew the Ephori And the better to ingratiate himself with the people divided the lands amongst them But being desperately attack'd by Antigonus King of Macedon before he had well established his Soveraign Authority he could not raise money to pay either his Mercenary soldiers or his own Citizens Whence for want of that power he was totally routed Lacedemon sack'd and the whole Kingdome became a Province to the Macedonians Mer. Without doubt many Contingencies may happen in which an Absolute Power in the Prince may prove the greatest security to a Kingdom against a Foreign Invasion For whilst the people are consulted withal or intreated to contribute toward the necessary expences of war by an untimely frugality and indiscreet husbandry the whole may be lost I remember a story very apposite to this purpose in the wars between the Greeks and Turks under Constantine the Fifteenth and last Christian Emperour of Greece The numerous Army of the Turks had so wasted the besieged in Constantinople that Constantine had no hopes of preserving the City but by a supply of Mercenary Soldiers To procure these a considerable sum of mony was requisite But the brutal and covetous Greeks would not be prevail'd upon to part with any thing at present though they had no other hopes to preserve all for the future So the unfortunate Emperour was slain and the City taken and sack'd from top to bottom with all the insolences that might be expected from a Pagan Conquerour Among the Greeks the Admiral Notaras was accounted the most rich and had been the most solicited by the Emperour to prevent by a chearful contribution and his good example the fatal hour of the Grecian Empire But cursed avarice doth often blind our reason so much that we are forc'd to yield That to our enemies which might have once preserv'd our friends And so it happened For Notaras burying all his Treasure whilest the Siege endured at last to preserve his life and complement the New Emperour Mahomet the second he raised his dead money from the grave and presenting iâ— with himself at the Emperour's feet offer'd the one to secure the other But the generous Turk looking sternly upon him Thou dog said he I take thy Treasure not as thy gift but as my due by right of conquest Which hadst thou in time given to thy poor Prince whom thou hast perfidiously betray'd thou mightest have preserv'd both thy Country and thy King Go then with a mischief and receive the just reward due to thy Treachery So he commanded him to be executed with no less severity than if he had been a Traytor even to Mahomet himself But Sir Begging your pardon for this Digression let us return to the Goths of whom I think you were saying That they have left little behind them which retains the memory that they once have been Pray what say you to those Tenures which are yet extant in many parts of Europe Were they not of the Gothick institution and do they not sufficiently testifie not only that they were but that they were also a wise people since their Government has remain'd so long after them Trav. Sir I perceive you use the word Government promiscuously as indeed our Author himself does Sometimes he makes it signifie the Supreme right of power sometimes the Subordinate and sometimes neither but only the effects of Government as in this case Now though these Tenures have remained in some Kingdoms yet they prove little of the wisdom and nothing of the excellent Government of those Goths For the last it is either totally lost or else so changed that it is not any more to be known For I do not hear or read of any such precarious Kingdom as theirs was extant at this day in Europe Nor is it probable there should for as hath been already observed such a constitution is so irregular and contrary to the nature of Government that it cannot continue long in that neutrality For either the people will take all the power into their hands whence some little Commonwealths have sometimes sprung up or else the King will by degrees become absolute and independent such as most of the Monarchs are at present throughout the whole world And for their Tenures you will easily find how they were continued if you consider that many little Kingdoms have been built upon the ruines of the declining Roman Empire which had been overrun by the Goths and Vandalls Roman paulatim coepit minui jam gentes quae Romanorum provincias non regna habitabant Râ—ges creare jam ex illorum potestate subduci in proprii arbitrii authoritate stare discunt These new Princes thought nothing more conducible to the establishment of their new Governments than to make as little innovation as they could but rather leave the conquered who were afterwards to become their Subjects in the same condition as they found them And those Tenures having no great matter of ill in them provided their Lords had no right in the Soveraign Authority as they had not many of them have continued with little alteration to this day This Cousin is I think sufficient to prove that contrary to our Author's proposition most Kings which have been in the world though they had an absolute and an independent right of power yet they have permitted the Lands to be divided and in the possession of the people And that though in the mixt Monarchy of the barbarous Goths and Vandalls some part of the power as well as possessions were in the Commonalty yet that is no reason to us why
he perswades them to unite under one Government knowing that they would become thereby like a bundle of Arrows much the stronger And that the name of Tyrant might not affright them or the loss of their fond power and freedom discourage them he promised to abate so much of his own Soveraign right of Government as to consult with them and take their opinions in weighty affairs as he did in a common Hall or meeting place called Asty In this method things went prosperously on until one Mnesteus a factious and an ambitious Prince of the house of Ericthonius insinuating to the people that Theseus intended at last to enslave them he caused the Athenians to rebell Theseus retired to the Island Sâ—yros where he ended his days Mnesteus usurped the Kingdom but having held his ill gotten honour but a little while the sons of Theseus were remitted to the Throne of their father and Theseus was ever after adored amongst them as a God Now if there be any thing in this story which makes for our Author much good may it do him And lastly Romulus cannot sure be said to have instituted the Common-wealth of Rome any more than Charles the Fifth the Republick of Holland from whose successors those people rebelled Tacitus says most clearly That Rome was governed in the beginning by Kings and that their liberty was procured by L. Brutus Vrbem Romam à principio reges habuere Libertatem consulatum L. Brutus instituit And to shew the extent of his power he tells us Ann. lib. 3. that Romulus governed them according to his will Romulus ut libitum nobis imperaverat Plutarch calls the Government all along a Monarchy and after Romulus had instituted the Senate composed of the Patricii or chief Citizens whensoever he appointed them to meet they were obliged says he to observe his orders and commands without making any reply Constat initio civitatis Reges omnem potestatem habuisse says Pomponius That in the beginning of the City of Rome their Kings enjoyed intirely the whole Soveraign Authority But not to multiply Authorities to prove such vulgar truths I shall refer you to our Authors chief Divine I mean the Divine Machiavel as he stiles him more than once his words are full and very intelligible where he calls all three Princes and their Governments Kingdoms Verum ut ad eos qui non fortuna sed singulari virtute in Principes sunt evecti veniamus speaking all the while of Kings excellentiores dico fuisse Mosen Cyrum Romulum Theseum and again which puts all out of dispute At qui Cyrum reliquos qui Regna sibi pepererunt constituerunt c. And farther of Romulus quo Romano imperio potiretur de Principe ca. 6. And yet Plato Red. hath the confidence to affirm p. 31. that Romulus himself was no more than the first officer of the Common-wealth and chosen as the Doge of Venice is for life But if Plato's Divine were not an ignorant Ass then our Author is certainly a very impudent impostor Merch. Indeed Cousin I have great reason to believe that Plato's authorities and examples are as false as his principles absurd Besides supposing these great men had instituted popular Governments as I am fully convinced they did not what doth that concern us Is there no difference between the foundation of a new Government and the continuation of an old one Is there no distinction between the Roman State in its infancy which extended not for several years above fifteen Miles beyond their Walls and the Empire of great Britain and Ireland We know that many priviledges may be granted to the people at first for encouragement which afterwards may be inconsistent with the safety of the Government And is there no regard to be had to different circumstances but let us proceed In p. 62. we read That it is not dangerous to a City to have their people rich but to have such a power in the Governing part of the Empire as should make those who manage the affairs of the Commonwealth depend upon them which came afterwards to be that which ruined their libertie and which the Gracchi endeavoured to prevent when it was too late What means he by this Trav. Sir We will preserve his sence but giving other names to the Country People and Governours we shall see more plainly how it runs Let us say then that it is not dangerous for England to have their people rich even in land for he speaks immediately before of the Romans purchasing lands but to have such a share in the right of Government as should make the King who manages the affairs of the Kingdom depend upon them methinks it is very clear and it has ever been my judgment that the people might have what proportion their industry could procure them in the lands provided they did not pretend to any share in the Soveraign authority Mer. But this is directly contrary to his own beloved Aphorism Sure there must be somewhat more in it or else you will make him contradict himself Trav. Faith Sir I cannot help that Truth will come out sometimes in spite of the Devil Nor know I how to mend his sense except I should make him appear at the same time the most false partial and prejudiced scribler that ever wrote Mer. No matter Sir let us if we can preserve his sense which I believe he values himself most upon and let his honestly and honour take their chance Trav. Let us then see what follows Which says he came afterwards to be that which ruin'd their liberty and which the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent Pray Cousin what is the antecedent to which in these two places Mer. Sure Sir that is most plain and according to my understanding it is that power in the governing part of the Empire c. Trav. You are right without doubt and I dare affirm that Q. Ennius himself could not make any other construction of it And if so then the whole sentence runs thus It was not dangerous to the Commonwealth of Rome to have their Subjects rich but it was dangerous that the Subject should have such a power in the governing part of the Empire as should make their Governours depend upon them which power of the people in the governing part of the Empire came afterwards to be that which ruin'd the peoples liberty And which power for all the world knows that and in this place is a conjunction copulative the Gracchi endeavour'd to prevent c. Now Sir the first part of this Sentence is most really sound doctrine and truth though diametrically opposite to Plato's grand proposition upon which undeniable Aphorism as he says he is to build most of his subsequent reasoning For indeed the people though never so rich are by no means to be trusted with a right of power but as I have said rather the contrary lest they should confound government or set it upon its head with its feet uppermost And
specious design Who perceiving at length the ambition and irregular proceedings of their great Patron the injustice of their pretensions and the little good the restitution of these lands would do themselves they totally deserted him Insomuch that Caius when his fatal hour drew near fell down before the Statue of Diana praying That the people who had so basely abandon'd him might never enjoy that liberty which he endeavour'd to have obtain'd for them Mer. I am much satisfi'd with this story and am apt to believe that many of our own worthy Patriots who cry up so much for Liberty and Property and the interest of the people intend more really their own particular advancement yet nevertheless you see our Author calls these men Illustrious and renowned persons their actions and undertakings Heroick Trav. He doth so and undoubtedly he would say the same thing if he durst not only of Brutus but of the Dominican Friar Ravillac and Hugh Peters himself or whoever else it was that murder'd our late Soveraign But you have heard the opinion of Florus with whom Plutarch agrees and all the ancient Authors that I have yet met withal And to conclude Tacitus who seems to have been friend enough to a Democratical Government calls them disturbers of the people Hinc Gracchi Saturnini turbatores plebis Ann. l. 3. Merch. T is well We come now to Agis and Cleomenes Who were they Trav. They were Kings of Sparta and their Designs and Fates much the same with the Gracchi The difference was chiefly this that the former being already Kings they endeavoured by the same means that is to say by abolition of debts or novae tabulae distribution of lands and favour of the people to procure to themselves an absolute authority against the usurped power of the Ephori The Gracchi being truly Subjects followed the same course to usurp the Empire but against the lawful Authority of the Senate This is only to be observed of Cleomenes that at the same time when he endeavoured to possess the Soveraign power he thought it nevertheless no Solecism in the Politicks to give the property of the Lands among the people In a word the same wheel troublesome and dangerous ambition moved equally all four against which Plutarch inveighs most severely in his introduction to the Lives of those Spartan Kings Merch. And may all ambitious disturbers of our peace meet with the same Catastrophe Next our Author tells us that alteration of the property is the Vnica corruptio politica Trav. I grant it Sir if you apply property to the right of power in Government but not if restrained to Lands as hath been already proved And for the favourable opinion which he hath of confusion or Anarchy may himself be confounded in this world I mean by his own loose principles and ungovernable unquiet Spirit Merch. What say you of the Laws and Government of Switzerland and the Low Countries Trav. Little Sir their Laws and Governments are as notoriously known as their Rebellions and several Authors have writ fully of both Merch. Very good we come next to the most famous Republick of Venice where amongst other things vulgar enough our Nobleman tells us that the great difficulty in the administration of that Republick hath been to regulate their Nobility and to bridle their Faction and ambition which can alone breed a disease in the vital part of their Government And this they do by most severe Laws and a very vigorous execution of them Trav. Right But because he hath not been pleased to let you know what those Laws are give me leave to inform you I shall not speak of little Mutineers those poor Rogues are easily cut off But come to the great and noble Villains and concerning such their Law is this when any eminent man whose relations and dependences are commonly very great shall using as yet no other weapon than his tongue defame the Government by calumnies and opprobrious Speeches and thereby endeavour to draw off first the affection and next the obedience of the people to their lawful Magistrate and that the Government thinks not fit to call him publickly to account lest some disturbance might happen through the interest of his friends or least the municipal Laws of the State might not be sufficient to reach his life for any particular thing though his complicated ills make him obnoxious in general to the Government and dangerous in it or that a perjured Jury should acquit him which would make him more malicious than before knowing full well that when a man becomes so purged the Devil enters into him again with nine Spirits worse than himself I say under such circumstances their method of proceeding is this First information being given to some of the Consiglio di Dieci and sufficient evidence concerning matter of fact his process is made which requires very little time and by majority of votes he is condemned to die the offender being all this while ignorant of what is doing and at liberty as at other times This done the business comes into the hands of the Inquisâ—tori del Stato who are three annual officers chosen out of the Dieci as also the Gao or Capo di Dieci who are also three but chosen monthly and out of the same body These Inquisitori are to see the Sentence executed which is left to their discretion and which they manage according to the circumstances of the offender If there be no difficulty in taking him at home then the way is this the Inquisitori or any two of them send for a file of Musketeers or more who accompanied with an Officer Confessor and Executioner and in the most quiet time of the night they force if need be the house of the offender where being apprehended he is acquainted at the same instant both with his offence and punishment It is too late and in vain to plead or dispute but being carried away into a Gondola prepared to receive him they put off accompanied with another toward the Sea and being come to the place they design the offender having received absolution from his Confessor they place him upon the midst of a Plank laid between the two Gondola's with a Stone about his neck then putting off their Boat the criminal falls for ever forgotten to the bottom of the Sea nor is there a man in the whole state of Venice who dares ever after inquire what is become of this Great Nobleman sometimes in such case they are strangled But if the offender happens to be a person having a great retinue as many have of Bravos and that the forcing of his Palace may prove troublesom and make too great a noise from the opposition which the officer may meet withal from the number of the Domesticks then the Inquisitori send for some of the most daring and notorious of the Banditi and at the same time accompany the message with a pass or safe-conduct both for his coming to Venice and return Upon
support of our English families so that there is no Cadet of a house ennobled who had not rather trail a pike than be an apprentice to the greatest Merchant in France All these Cadets our Author hath brought to Court and made them the chief props of the present French Government and greatness But he hath forgot That as the young French Nobility are very numerous so the vast number of Ecclesiastical Preferments Monasteries and Temporal offices depending eternally and at all times upon the Crown do entertain so many of these young Cadets that I am confident at least two thirds of the younger children are provided for after this manner without depending immediately upon the King's Purse As to the division of the Paternal estate amongst the Cadets except the principal house which he calls Vol de chapon our Buzzardly Author of a French Capon hath made a long-wing'd Hawk For what he calls most part of the Kingdom is particular to Paris only as with us in London and Kent formerly I suppose by reason of the Traders the Isle of France Limousin Xantonge and it may be some one Province more which possibly I have not remembred Thus you see Cousin how our Author augments or diminisheth changetth or disguiseth the truth of things as they make most convenient for his purpose and what little credit ought to be given to him We shall therefore take no more notice of France For his premises being demonstrably false his consequence whatsoever it be cannot hold good Mer. Sir I never thought all to be Gospel that hath been preached by our divine Plato But now we come to the Clergy let us see what respect he hath for the Spiritual Government since the Temporal doth so much offend him He tells us then very sincerely and frankly that he could wish there never had been any Clergy amongst us c. For you know the Northern people did not bring Christianity into these parts but found it here Trav. Most excellent You may perceive how happy we are like to be under the New Government of our infamous Author who rebelling against God and Man appointed to rule over us by Gods authority hath left nothing that I know of to set up for but Hâ—ll and the Devil But his argument is very strong for the Northern people did not bring Christianity into these parts Indeed it is great pity that we have not retain'd the Gothick or Saxon and Northern Paganism with the Gothick Polities But our learned Historian should have had at least so much respect for Antiquity as to have consider'd that the Ecclesiastical Government or Clergy was establish'd here according to his own confession even before the barbarous Northern people came here themselves and I thank God it still continues in a great measure amongst us even at this day and I hope is like to do so notwithstanding the Fanatical and pernicious doctrine of Plato and his hellish disciples And for the institution of our Ecclesiastical government and foundation of our Bishopricks and many of our Monasteries which our Author ascribes to most villanous causes 't is certain from the best Histories extant among us that King Lucius about the year 180. converted no less than thirty one of the Temples of the Heathenish Flamins and Arch-flamins into so many Christian Bishopricks whereof London York Caerlyon now S. Davids were made the Metropolitans of the Province But our Pagan Politician hating Christianity it self hates no less the establishment of the Christian Religion which he vilifies with notorious slanders and falsities And as for Monasteries not to give a particular account of all their several beginnings which were generally from the benevolence of most pious men and women and too many to be numbred we read that King Edgar the peaceable founded no less for his own share than forty seven Mer. Sir I concur with you both in your History and your hopes and shall ever add my most hearty prayers and wishes But our Author proceeds and in the next page had he had wit enough he would have turn'd the whole order into ridicule But knowing well that his strongest arguments and chiefest talent consists in opprobrious language the foul-mouth'd Fanatick is not asham'd to call our Christian Ancestors barbarous and those good men who at the expence of their blood and livâ—s plaâ—ted and propâ—gated the Christian Faith amongst â—s Vipers Trav. He is equally mistaken in both For not six pages farther that is in p. 106. he there is pleas'd to give our Ancestors the title of a plain-hearted and well-meaning people who were barbarous before in p. 100. But to call a man a Saint or a Devil is indifferent to him and promiseuously us'd according as either serves best for his purpose For the Ecclesiastical Vipers I do not think indeed that his wit has furnish'd him with a character answerable to the design of his malice For a Viper is known to be an Animal much more useful and valuable than our Author himself is like to be For although that God and Nature have given it a sting or teeth if you will to defend it self from violence and punish such as offend it yet we know that of its body are compos'd the most Soveraign Cordials Such are the excellent Works of our Learned Clergy which are found to be the most effectual Antidotes against the poysonous Blasphemies and Heresiâ—s of our Schismatical Dissenters Besides Naturalists assure us that the Viper hath such a care and tender affection for its young that upon any pressing danger she receives them again into her own body and charged with the load and safety of what her self gave life to suffers no injury to approach them until first it hath passed through her own body and she destroyed But our unnatural sneaking and malicious worm and good besides for nothing is barbarous enough to tear out the bowels of his indulgent mother the Holy Church I mean even whilst those very bowels are yearning to see the sad condition of her desperately abandoned Son and in the height of his wickedness opens her tender arms to receive this child of perdition into her Sacred bosome But the Prodigal will never return and so let us leave him whilst our Church of England wanting as little my defence as apprehending his reproaches will still remain firm upon the rock secure though sadly lamenting those miserable shipwracks which storms of our own rasing have procured Merch. And may the providence of Heaven preserve her until from militant she becomes triumphant In the mean time I perceive we are like to have more work about the civil Government For in p. 103 our Author tells us that the Soveraign power of England is in King Lords and Commons Trav. Right Sir when there is a Parliament in being and as it is taken for one intire body of which the King is Principium caput finis But there is no Soveraign power in the house of Commons neither is there a
it we will suppose that by his Goths and Northern people he means the Saxons for the Danes were but a very little while I think not thirty years masters of England and so what may be gather'd in favour of his popular Government from them if any thing could would not be much material We will imagine then that our Saxons were of the race of the Goths and that retaining their customs They introduc'd many of them amongst us such as might be the division of the lands into several Feuds which they called Thane lands and were like our Mannors or Lordships under certain Tenures or Services Many also they might have found amongst the Britains and retain'd them under their own Government for it is certain the Britains held lands by several Tenures but whether they were originally of their own Institution or the remains of the Roman Clientela's and Praeda militaria I will not determine I have already told you that the Goths upon their first Transplantation and after they were setled in their new possessions were govern'd by Kings whose power encreas'd despotically according as the people grew secure and civiliz'd and so they continued above a thousand years nor do I find that the people in all this time pretended to any other share in the government than to meet in General Councils when the affairs of the Kingdom oblig'd their King to assemble them And truly I ever thought such National Assemblies when well regulated very conducible to the security and happy subsistence of all Governments and such our antient Monarchs have thought fit to make use of and have transmitted the custom of convoking such Councils which we not call Parliaments even to our days But that these Counsellors should have any right of command is so contrary to the design of their Institution that as this must needs be dangerous to the Government it self so they make their good Institution useless by rendring themselves suspected to the King who alone hath the right to assemble them For what wise Magistrate would by his own authority raise a power which he apprehends might shock his own The sad effects of this we have seen of late days among our selves when our Commoners in Parliament who were meer Counsellors and no more or Representatives with a power to consent have arrogated to themselves a Soveraign authority and under that pretence have forceably and violently subverted our antient Government and destroyed our Lawful and Natural Governour himself and have besides of late spent so much time in unnecessary new disputes concerning their own rights and prerogatives which really do not much concern us that they have totally neglected those main ends of their meeting which are the Security of our Government under our Lawful Soveraign and the peace and happiness of his people and which are the only blessings and benefits which we desire of them Nay they have been so far from procuring those advantages for us to which purposes they have been solely entrusted by us that their disputes concerning the Succession to the Crown of England which is indisputable The Right which the King hath to borrow money upon good Security which was never taken from the poorest of his Subjects shewing mercy upon unfortunate offenders which is his Nature as well as undoubted Prerogative and several such other irregular Heats and Animosities are the most apparent causes of our present horrid Conspiracies troubles and distractions But to return to our Goths I have told you that after their division those that spread toward the West and Southern parts of Europe were in a continual state of war and so their King was but their General whom sometimes they did depose or continue according as they found him capable of that great employment upon whose conduct in their dangerous circumstances their Lives and Fortunes did chiefly depend and such in some respects was the case of our Saxons under their Heptarchy here in England All the world knows that they invaded us without any pretence of title being only call'd in as friends by Vortigern the British King to assist him against the Scots and by degrees encroaching upon the Britains they erected several Kingdoms until at length the Native Inhabitants were totally over-power'd But this made very little alteration in their affairs for wanting a common enemy they were always quarrelling amongst themselves usurping upon one another untill their several little Governments were united under one Soveraign Monarch who was Egbert as some write or Alfred the eighteenth King of the West-Saxons ` T is true that during Vide Chron. Sir R Baker their Heptarchy they chose one amongst themselves who was the Supreme head of the rest and was call'd King of Engle-lond And it is recorded that eight of the Mercian Kings in a continued succession kept the Imperial Crown of the Heptarchy But it was rather a titular honour than a Soveraign right of Government and I do not find but that every particular King in his own Province did generally exercise those two great Regalities of making Laws and levying Taxes by vertue of his own authority But whether they did or not it is little to our purpose since we have no reason to follow the examples of those petty Kings and Vsurpers especially when we consider their circumstances But if we must lay aside the form of Government since the Norman conquest from whence our Aera begins and concerning which our Histories are more certain and Authentick let us then rather consult the Administration of those West-Saxons who solely and Soveraignly enjoy'd the Crown of England And not to be too tedious we will six upon King Edward the Confessor the last except Harold of our English Saxon Kings I shall not trouble you with much neither concerning him because you may find at large whatever can be said of him in our own English Histories I shall only therefore make this remark that we have had no Kings since William the Conqueror nor was he himself more absolute than King Edward the Confessor was I remember nothing of his impositions but rather believe there might have been none during his reign because I find that he remitted to his people the yearly Tribute of 40000 l. that had been gathered by the name of Danegelt But for Laws which now are made by Act of Parliament I observe no such Parliamentary way of proceedings in his days It is true that he called a Councel or Wittena Gemote which some call very improperly a Parliament especially as it is now understood in the second year of his Reign but the Commoners were so far from having any right of power that their presence was not really necessary Minores laici non sammoneri debent sed si eorum praesentia necessaria fuerit c. Which shews plainly that they might be omitted Nay although they were summoned and did not appear nevertheless the Parliament was taken to be full without them Which is a sufficient proof that the Commons
away the Kings Prerogative in the Affirmative Yet notwithstanding this and ten times more that may be said to this purpose our King is advised and perswaded nay almost necessitated as our Author would have it not only to quit some One of his Prerogatives but to make short work to release and give them up all at once In the next place let us consider Plato's excellent new model it self and here like a wise Politician he hath made Three co-ordinate powers in being at the same time that is to say King Lords and Commons I confess for the King he says little of him and with great reason for indeed he signifies nothing more than a Cypher which as in Arithmetick is only to make the Commons more valuable But to do our Author right he hath yet a farther use to make of this his otherwise useless Prince that is to say whilest neither his own Right nor his Power nor our Laws can secure himself his Name nevertheless is to preserve these his Masters With that they hope to prevent all opposition and civil wars at home For should they forceably depose him they justly apprehend that his Loyal Subjects in England would endeavour to revenge such an insupportable wrong Nor can they believe that the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland would again tamely submit their Necks to the servile yoke of a few ambitious English Commoners or that foreign Princes themselves would even for their own securities sake quietly and unconcern'd countenance this horrid injustice and outrage done to the sacred dignity of Kings But if they can perswade his Majesty willingly to depose himself and at the same time disinherit his Heirs and Successors they imagine that none can pretend to disapprove much less blame or impute to them the volunry act of a King For as Volenti non fit injuria and by consequence no offence in them so they will certainly reserve to themselves the honour of punishing in the King as their master-piece and last act of justice the Treason which he shall have committed against himself To facilitate all this our Author hath taken from his Majesty his Militia and his Revenue that is men and monâ—y which are the strength and sinews of Power and in the Commoners he hath plac'd the Royal authority of Calling Proroguing and Dissolving themselves And left the King in this miserable condition should have yet any hopes left even of securing his own Person he hath taken from him the power of making his own Officers and bestowing those imployments which have always depended upon the Regal authority Nay the Lords themselves are no more to receive their Honours from the Fountain of all Honour but must lick the dust from the shooes of their once obsequious vassals So our poor Master having nothing now to give must lose the hopes even of a grateful friend who in his extremity might at least wish him well and speak a good word for him to his insolent Governours Mer. But Sir our Author leaves most of these things in the disposition of the Parliament by which he tells us that he ever understood the King Lords and Commons so that neither his Militia nor Revenue can be said to be so absolutely taken from himself as granted to the Parliament in general of which he is still to be the head Trav. Ah Cousin there is deadly poison in this his varnished treacherous Cup and you will easily perceive it when you consider Plato cares not so much that the Militia should be in the power of the Commons as out of the King For whilest the King cannot dispose of it without the consent of his Lower House judge you whether they will ever agree to the raising any force which they shall not themselves command If then any difference arise upon that or any other point which unavoidably and designedly will happen then are the Commoners become immediately masters of all For what can the King do though joyn'd with the House of Lords without a right of command or force against a multitude and that so unequal too that if the House of Commons in Parliament represent the whole Nation as they pretend they do then are they at least ten thousand men against one though all the Nobility be included with the King The necessary consequence of all this must be that if on the one hand the King and Lords agree with the Commons in all things then the Commons govern more absolutely than if there were neither the one nor the other because there is no pretence against them On the other hand if they in any thing differ from the Commons then undoubtedly the disagreeing Lords as formerly shall be turned out of doors the King set aside and the Votes made by the House of Commons Jan. 4. 1648 revived and confirmed which being very short but plain I shall here repeat First That the people under God are the original of all just power Secondly That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being chosen by and representing the people have the Supreme Authority of this Nation Thirdly That whatever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons of England assembled in Parliament hath the force of a Law Fourthly That all the people of this Nation are included thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers be not had thereunto What think you now Cousin of these four Votes even whilst the King and Lords were yet in being Do they not look as if they designed a Commonwealth or rather to establish an arbitrary Tyrannical power in the House of Commons and yet their propositions all along to the King were the same which Plato hath again offered us that is leaving the Militia the publick revenue nomination of officers and such like to the Parliament by which was always meant King Lords and Commons This is the politick web which our Author pretends to have spun out of his own shallow brains and indeed it is so very wondrous thin that if our present Statesmen could not with half an eye see through it I should be apt to agree with our Author p. 22. that they ought in conscience to excuse themselves from that sublime imployment and betake themselves to callings more suitable to their capacities as Shoomakers Tailors and such other mechanick professions Merch. Sir the Sun at noon day is never more clear than that he designs at best a Commonwealth And indeed where three co-ordinate powers are in being at the same time it is impossible they should continue long in that state but some one or two must certainly in time over balance and get the advantage of the other I think Lucan confirmed this long ago when he said Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas Impatiens consortis erit And the King having neither power strength money nor officers it is ten thousand to one as you observe on the Commons side who are actually possessed of all Pray therefore proceed
whole Nation when joyn'd with so considerable a part as the Church of England they were both overcome by the Dissenters it was morally impossible Besides they had generally taken the Oath of Allegiance which for ought I can hear they have not broken generally I suppose for if there be any of them who refuse the Oath of Allegeance I look upon them as out of the Kings Protection and little better or full as dangerous as open enemies Nor can I imagine what other Government they could or were ever suppos'd to introduce contrary to that which was then establish'd and which they swore to maintain I am apt enough to believe that they might hope for some ease or exemption from the rigour of the penâ—l Laws which neither you nor I can blame in them if they had desir'd Mer. But though they have taken the Oath of Allegeance yet you see that they will not be prevail'd upon to take the Oath of Supremacy And you know that according to our Law the King is no less head of the Ecclesiastical than of the Civil Government Trav. True Sir But this is as much an argument against the Dissenters as the Papists For it is not a greater crime in them nor prejudice to the State to tolerate men who by the principles of their Religion are taught to submit their Consciences to another Spiritual guide in Spiritual matters as many Soveraign Princes themselves do at this day than those who owning the King to be Supreme head of the Church by their words disown him by their actions that is in not obeying his Laws or Rebelling against him as such Besides it is well known that the general opinion of the Popish Recusants the Laity I mean concerning the Pope's Supremacy hath no ill influence upon our Civil Government which is that which I chiefly intend in this discourse but that they think themselves indispensably oblig'd to defend our Lawful Kings and their Civil Authority not only against all temporal powers whatsoever but even against the Pope himself Mer. This Sir I have heard much controverted and the contrary opinion affirm'd by some of their own Writers that is to say That the Pope may and doth Excommunicate heretick Kings as he calls them By which act their Subjects are no more bound to pay them their obedience nay and can absolve the people from their Oath of Allegeance and impower them to depose their natural and lawful Prince and set up some other in his stead Now Sir this is such a doctrine as makes the Papists uncapable of ever being trusted under any Protestant Government Trav. I confess Sir I have heard that some private men have maintain'd some such erroneous and perniciouâ— Principles and flattering the Pope have endeavoured to raise his power to a much sublimer pitch than ever Christ himself or any of his Apostles pretended it should arrive But Sir as Temporal Princes have been ever usurping upon one another and by most unchristian ways sacrificed the innocent blood of many thousands of men for the promoting their own greatness and satisfying their ambitious designs so these Spiritual Emperours have follow'd too much the ill examples of Temporal Princes And being it may be more solicitous to extend their power than encrease the number of true believers have perverted the good use of St. Peters Keys and have rather opened by them the door of dissention and discord upon earth than the gates of the Heavenly Paradise For some years these holy Fathers exercised their arms against one another and how much blood and horrid troubles the dispute between the Bishop of Rome and Patriarch of Constantinople concerning Primacy hath cost Christendom is sufficiently recorded in History I may add farther that this their contention became at last the ruine of the Greek Empire but hitherto the Temporal Princes enjoy'd their rights and Prerogatives undisturb'd until Hildebrand otherwise called Gregory the seventh arrogated to himself a Soveraign authority over all Christian Kings and Emperours as may be seen at large in the History of Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany who was the first unfortunate example of the Papal usurpation which is confirm'd by a learned Roman Catholick Bishop and one who lived in the Reign of Fred. the first his words are these Lego relego saith he Romanorum Regum Imperatorum gesta nunquam invenio quenquam eorum ante hunc à Romano Pontifice excommunicatum vel regno privatum nisi forte quis pro Anathemate habendum ducat quod Philippus ad breve tempus à Romano Episcopo inter poenitentes collocatus Theodosius à beato Ambrosio propter cruentam caedem à liminibus Ecclesiae sequestratus sit Ottofrising c. 35. After this several encroachments were made upon other Princes and the Popes making use as well of St. Paul's Sword as St. Peter's Keys reduc'd most of them under their obedience and as the same Author expresses it destroy'd them by that very power which they had first receiv'd from the benevolence of the Emperours themselves seeming to imitate therein the Prophet David who first overcame the Philistine by the providence of God and then cut off his head with his own Sword Videntur culpandi Sacerdotes per omnia qui regnum suo gladio quem ipsi à regum habent gratia ferire conentur nisi forte David imitari cogitent qui Philistinum priâ—o virtute Dei stravit postmodum prâ—prio gladio jugulavit Now Sir after the Popes were in possession of these great Prerogatives and had perswaded the people to contribute as well to their own as their Princes slavery by granting them this universal right of power it is no wonder if some of their own Clergy have endeavoured by false arguments to maintain this usurp'd authority But Cousin it is well known that this is now become no more than an old antiquated title and gives him no right over Soveraign Princes at this day It is true those Princes who submitted themselves to the constitutions of the Council of Treâ—t permit the Pope to exercise some Spiritual Jurisdiction in their Kingdoms But it is universally and publickly declared that the Popes have no Civil or Temporal Authority over Soveraign Princes nor can they by their Spiritual power or authoritate clavium Ecclesiae depose any King or absolve any Subject from their Faith Obedience or Oath of Allegeanâ—e Mer. Can you give an instance of 〈…〉 made by any Popish Kings and consented to by the Roman Clergy Trav. Yes Sir and that so fully that there can remain no scruple or difficulty and it is by the most Christian King of France and eldest son of the Roman Church and a severe persecutor of the Protestant Religion I will give you the words of the Declaration it self as far as it concerns this particular that you may the better judge your self of the truth It is Declared by the Gallick Church Primum beato Petro ejusque successoribus Christi Vicariis ipsique
Ecclesiae rerum spiritualium ad aeternam salutem pertinentium non autem civilium temporalium à Deo traditam potestatem c. Reges ergo Principes in temporalibus nulli Ecclesiasticae potestati Dei ordinatione subjici neque authoritate clavium Ecclesiae directe vel indirecte deponi aut illorum subditos eximi à side atque obedientia ac praestito fidelitatis Sacramento solvi posse Hancque sententiam publicâ— tranquillitati necessariam nec minus Ecclesiae quam Imperio utilem â—t verbo Dei patrum traditioni Sanctorum exemplis consonam omnino retinendam Which is thus Englished It is Declared First that the Power of Spiritual things and such as concern eternal Salvation but not of Civil or Temporal affairs was delivered by God to the blessed Peter and his Successors Christ's Vicars and to the Church it self c. Kings therefore and Princes in Temporal affairs are not Subjected by the appointment of God to any Ecclesiastical power nor can they be directly or indirectly depos'd by the authority of the Keys of the Church nor can their Subjects be freed or absolv'd from their Faith and Obedience and their Oath of Fidelity And let this Sentence necessary to the publick tranquillity nor less profitable for the Church than State be irrevocable as agreeing with the Word of God the Tradition of Fathers and the Examples of the Saints or holy men This Sir is the first article in the Declaration of the French Clergy which is asserted registred and confirmed by the whole Vniversity of Paris the Sorâ—one and Faculties des Droits Civil and Canon as may be seen fully in the Edit du Roy sur la Declaration faitte par le Clergie de France de ces sentimens touchant la puissance Ecclesiastique and published this present year 1683. Now Sir in my opinion this so solemn and national declaration together with the concurrence and constant profession of all the English Roman Catholicks that I have met with doth sure by much overbalance the writings of any private men or Jesuits whatsoever And such Principles although they be most erroneous and most damnable yet when we come to examine the case impartially between the very Jesuits and our Dissenters even as it relates to these most horrid positions we shall find these Dissenters have so far outgone the Jesuits themselves in the Doctrine of Deposing Heretick Princes that is to say Princes who differ from the Church of Rome in Fundamentals or Speculative Doctrines which they believe absolutely necessary to Salvation that they have dared to maintain publickly the Doctrine of Deposing even Protestant Princes and their own natural and most lawful Soveraigns and absolving their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegeance and this not for any difference in the Doctrinal part which is absolutely necessary to Salvation but for Discipline only and Church Government which right of Government is so inherent to the Imperial Crown of England that it makes up and is one of the constituent parts of it And that these are the very principles of our Dissenters I refer you for ample satisfaction to their own very words where and when delivered as they have been Collected and Published by the care and diligence of the most worthy Mr. L'Estrange in his Dissenters Sayings Now when our Dissenters shall think fit to make so Solemn and Publick a Declaration as the Papists have done at Paris against the Doctrine of Deposing Kings and absolving Subjects as is before recited I shall be as ready to do the Dissenters justice in that particular as I have now done to the Papists Merch. Sir I perceive you are a very good advocate for the Papists and indeed I must needs confess that I am abundantly satisfied with those arguments which you have produced in their favour and do heartily wish they could as well comply with the Spiritual as I am perswaded they will live peaceably and quietly under the Civil Government And as to the present question of Toleration between the Papists and the Dissenters I perceive that the force of your argument consists in this that the Dissenters besides their more than Jesuitical principles most pernicious to Civil Government as hath been now declared that they I say agreeing with the Church of England in the Doctrine differ chiefly concerning Government to which in conscience they ought and confess they may submit but the Papists disagreeing in the Doctrine and speculative points which they believe absolutely necessary to Salvation cannot possibly comply with us without the apparent danger of eternal damnation So having a more justifiable pretence to differ from us in the Spiritual Government only than the Dissenters in either the Ecclesiastical or Temporal they ought the rather of the two to be tolerated Truly the reason of this is very obvious in the Oeconomy of our families For if a Master should command two of his Sons or Servants to go for example half a score miles upon earnest business and the one should excuse himself for this reason that he is certainly assured or believes positively and unfeignedly that a company of Robbers or a Lion is in the way which answers to Damnation in the case of the Papists and that he shall be murdered or devoured that the other Son or Servant having no such fears upon him doth nevertheless upon some much more slight and frivolous pretence obstinately refuse to obey the Master desiring also that hence forward the Master would go upon his own errands himself which agrees with the condescension that the Dissenters require from the Government I think indeed in this case though both be guilty of disobedience yet the former is much more excusable and tolerable than the latter and that the obstinate Servant is much more unreasonable and dangerous in the family than the other I can say nothing against this but only wish that the one had less fear and the other more duty and respect Having then Sir given me full satisfaction concerning these three main points viz our Liberties Properties and Religion under our present Government in which having found no faults negatively we ought not to desire any change or innovation Yet nevertheless be pleased to let me know affirmatively why a Common-wealth might not be rationally promoted and set up in this present troublesome conjuncture of our affairs Trav. Let us then agree that our Author designs a Commonwealth as I have already prov'd from his own mouth Besides the constitution of his mix'd Government will inevitably bring it upon us or return us again to a Monarchy where we are For though he doth not tell us plainly that he designs totally to remove the King and Royal family yet so many inconveniences will happen that as it may be in the beginning of the late Traiterous Association all the Traitors might not at first resolve upon the barbarous murder of his Majesty and Royal Highness yet when they were once engag'd in the one they found the other
I have made some other few remarks as the impertinent comparison which Plato hath made of a Bayliff Attorney or Referrâ—e as they relate to the choosing the Speaker of the House of Commons all which is directly against himself his magisterial definition of Prerogative and many other arrogances and follies all which I hope I shall be able to answer my self without giving you any farther trouble Trav. Sir I do not in the least quâ—stâ—on it however if any thing hath been omitted in which I may be able to give you farther satisfaction I shall â—vâ—r be ready to obey your Commands Coelum ipsum pâ—timus stultitiâ— neque Per nostâ—um pâ—â—imâ—â— scelâ—â— Iracunda Jovem ponere fulmina Horaâ— â—arm l. 1. THE CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. OF the Graâ—iâ—n Commonwealtâ—â— compâ—red wâ—â—h England Page â—4 â—5 Of Plato Lycurgus Sparta and Athens p. 26. 27. sequent The original of the Graecian Governments p. 34. seq Of Solon p. 37. Of Athens p. 41. Of Sparta p. 47. The Ephori p. 48. DISCOURSE II. Division of Government p. 59. Of the House of Commons p. 65. their Institution p. 68. Of the House of Lords p. 66. 67. Of the Kings prerogative in Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments p. 7â— The beginning of Government before the Flood p. 76. After the Flood 7â— Of Ogyges Sithuthrus Deucalian Noe p. 79. Of Natâ—â—e p. 8â— First Kingdoms afâ—… the Flood instituted by fathers of Famâ—lies p. 87. 802. No right of Power nor Liberty originally in the People p. 89 Commonwealths founded upon Vsurpaâ—â—on c. p. 90. Of the Creâ—tion of the World and Mankind according to â—â—cretius and some other Heathen Philoâ—oâ—â—ers p. 91. seq Of Moses â—â—d â—â—â— History p. 97. seq Abraham hâ—d Regal Authority p. 107 Saulâ— â—â—t chosen by the people nor depended â—poâ— them p. 109. Empire not founded oâ— Property p. 113. upon â—â—at it is foundâ—â— p. 125. 127. Not reasonâ—ble thâ—â— the People who have the greatest interest in the Property should have any right of power in the Governmeent except what is subordinate p. 14â— Of Power â—48 God governs humanâ— affairs p. 154. Of force p. 156. That the people by â—â—ving an interest in the Property have â—ot â—â—ereâ—â—â— greater power force or streâ—gtâ— than if they hâ—d it â—oâ— p. 1â—2 Of â—…es p. 169. All Soveraign Priâ—â—â—s â—â—vâ—â—â—ighâ— of â—oâ—er â—veâ— tâ—e 〈…〉 the properâ—y be diviâ—… the people p â—71 Moâ—â—rchs who hâ—ve â—â—joâ—eâ— the Sâ—pâ—eâ—e Aâ—thority hâ—ve yet left the property to the people Of the Scythians p. 178. Of the Assyrianâ— Medes and Persians p. 180. Of the Aegyptian Kings p. 182. Of the Romans p. 185. Of the Brittish Kings p. 192. Of the Kings of Israel â—r of the Jews p. 193. Definition of an â—bsolute Monarch p. 196 197. David â—â—â—bsolute Monarch p. 199. Of Zedâ—kiaâ— and Jeremiah p. 204. Of the â—aâ—hedrim p. 209. Of the Goths â— 212. Of the Lombards p. 216. Of the Vandalls p. 221. Of Clâ—â—mâ—â—â—s King of Sparta p. 225. The death of the last Christian Greek Emperour and loss of Constantinople p. 226. DISCOURSE III. Moses Theseus and Romulus â—ot Founders of Demoâ—râ—ciâ—s aâ— Plato Red averrs p. 242. Of the Gracchi and Agrarian Lâ—w p. 25â— â—53 Of Agis â—nâ— Clâ—â—mâ—neâ— p. 260. Punishmeâ—t of Sedition anâ— Calâ—mniâ—â—ors of the Government in Venice 26â— Of the French Gentry Frâ—emen and Râ—â—â—â—â—â—rs their â—…res p. 27â— Vindiâ—â—tion of 〈…〉 Clergy and Ecclestastical Government against the malicious reflections of Plato Red. p. 274. 277. Soveraign right of power solely in the King p. 279. 284. Of the Kings negative voice in Parliament p. 281. The Kings of England depend not upon the people nor received their right of power from them p. 285. seq 288. The Goths not in England p. 291. Of the Saxons and their Tenures p. 293. 297. Of our late Parliament p. 295. Of K. Edward the Confessor p. 298. Plato Red. designs to set up a Commonwealth p. 304. Of the Kingâ— prerogative p. 306. Of our Liberties p. 315. Of Calumniators p. 317. Of our Properties p. 322. Of Annual Parl. p. 325. Of Religion p. 333. Of Dissenters p. 335. Of Popish Recusants 340. Of Toleration 342. Of the Popes Supremacy 350. 355. Dissenters Doctrine of Deposing Princes 357. A Commonwealth not to be promoted in this present conjuncture of affairs 361. 367. Of Arbitrary power in the King 365. Of Liberty of Conscience 369. ERRATA IN the Preface Line 1. for Inquity read Iniquity p. 66. l. 17. put out But. p. 80. for pâ—rsonatus r. persâ—â—â—tatuâ— l. 12. for Abydnuâ— r. Abydenuâ— p. 86 l. 11. for Government r. faith p. 143. l ult for Vital heat r. Animal â—pirits p 144. l. 1. for Veins r. Nerves p. 185 255 256 294 for Praeda r. praedia p. 186. for lientiam r. licentiam