them The Parliament was first in Danger the City Next and Then the Nation and as their Ielousies Encreas'd so must Their Forces till by Degrees they grow to an Army The King and his Adherents they call the Common-Enemy whom they Invade and Vanquish Here 's their work done in short what have they now to fear Only New-Modelling or Disbanding A blessed Translation of the Government from the Rule of the Law to the Power of the Sword and There to abide till One Army be remov'd by Another That is the Tyranny abides no matter tho' under several Formes and Tyrants Our LEGIONS of the Reformation were Rays'd by certain Rebellious Lords and Commons and Seconded by the City of London Wee 'll see now how they behav'd themselves towards their Masters and Friends In 1647. the Army Reformes and Purges the House Presses their Dissolution Seizes their General Pointz in the North Squeezes and Menaces the City of London Marches up to it and in Triumph through it Takes Possession of the Tower Charges the Maior with divers Aldermen and Citizens of High-Treason Alters their Militia's and Common-Counsel and finally gives the Law to the House and That to the Nation In Decemb. 1648. the Army gives the House another Purge and the year following Cromwel himself had like to have been out-trick'd by the Levellers about Banbury In 1653. The Army Casts off the Olâ— Conventicle and up goes Oliver who calls Another only to get a Taxe and a Title and when They had done the One half and made way to the Other off goes That too The Next was call'd in 1654. another after That in 1656. and Both were serv'd with the same Sauce If Cromwell could as easily have moulded the Army as That did the House his businesse had been done with half the Ceremony but Mony was Their business and Kingship His so that they help'd him in the One and Cross'd him in the Other In Septemb. 1658. Oliver Dies and Then they are Richard's Army whose puisne Highness must have His Parliament too They meet and notwithstanding a huge Pack of Officers and Lawyers the Vote prov'd utterly Republican and Friend neither to Single-Person nor Army Now Richard takes his turn but first down goes his Parliament and for a while the Army-Officers undertake the Government Some Ten dayes after up with the Rump again and then they 're Lenthall's Army which in Octob. 1659. throws out the Rump and now they 're Fleetwood's Army Enter the Rump once more in Decemb. and once more the Army comes about again The Rump's next Exit is for ever March the 16. 1660. Behold the Thorough-Reformation and every Change Seal'd with a Sacrament to have been an Act of Conscience and guided by a Divine Impulse Behold the Staff of the Rebellion both the Support and Punishment of it a Standing Army While Plots could either be Procured or credibly suggested the Innocent were their Prey and when That entertainment fayl'd them they worryed one-another never at Peace betwixt the Striâ—e first to Subject the Nation and Then to Govern it So long as the Royal Interest was in Vigour it was the Faction's Policy to engage all sorts of People whom they could possibly Unite against That Interest however Disagreeing among Themselves their first work being only to Destroy the King and This was the Composition of the first Army From Killing they Proceed to take Possession and here Ensues a greater Difficulty A Force is Necessary still but the State of the Dispute being Chang'd the Former Mixture is not for their present purpose the Conspiratours that agreed to overthrow the Government being now Divided who shall Enjoy it Hereupon they fall to Sorting and Purging of Parties the Independent at last carrying it and Oliver in the Head of them After this Decision of the Contest betwixt the Two Factions the Army it self divides and Cromwell is now more puzzled with the Private Contrivements of his own Officers then he was before with the open Power of his profess'd Enimie for they are cleerly for his Ruling with them but not over them so that unless â—e can both Uphold them for his Security and Modell them for his Design he does nothing In Both He labour'd and beyond Question Di'd in the Despaire of perfecting Either finding upon Experience that his Ambition was as Intolerable to his Party as the Charge of Continuing his Army was to the Publique and what the Latter was wee 'll read in own words deliver'd at a Conference April 21. 1657. The present Charge sayes he of the Forces both by Sea and Land including the Government will be 2426989 l. The whole present Revenue in England Scotland and Ireland is about 1900000 l. I think this was Reckoned at the Most as now the Revenue stands Why now towards This you settle by your Instrument 1300000 l. for the Government and upon That Accompt to maintain the Force by Sea and Land and This without Landâ—Taxe I think and this is short of the Revenue that now may be Raised by the Government 600000 l. because you see the Present Government is 1900000 l. and the whole Summe which may now be Raised comes of the Present Charge 542689. And although an End should be put to the Spanish Warr yet there will be a Necessity of the Preservation of the Peace of the Three Nations to keep up the Present Established Army in England Scotland and Ireland and also a considerable Fleet for some good Time untill it shall please God to Quiet and Compose Mens Minds and bring the Nation to some better Consistency so that Considering the Pay of the Army coming to upwards 1100000 l. per annum and the Government 300000 l. it will be necessary that for some convenient Time seeing you find things as you do and it is not good to think a Wound healed before it be that there should be Raised over and above 1300000 l. the Summo of 600000 l. per annum which makes up the Summe of 1900000 l. That likewise the Parliament declare how far they will carry on the Spanish War and for what Time and what farther Summe they will raise for the carrying on the same and for what Time and if these Things be not Assertained as one saith Money is the Cause certainly what ever the Cause is if Money be Wanting the business will fall to the ground and all our Labour will be Lost and therefore I hope you will have a care of our Vndertakings How many Souls Lives Millions and Noble Families How well a Temper'd Government How Gracious a Prince and happy a People were by This Cursed Army Destroy'd will need no more then their own Consciences to determine when Divine Vengeance shall call them to a Reckoning It brought forth briefly the worst of Crimes and Mischiefs without the least Tincture of a Comfort or shadow of a Benefit Nor was it likely to do other if we consider either the
to dispense with Common Formalities in Order both to the Discharge of his Duty and the Wellfare of his People His Oath of Protection Implying him Vested with a Power of Protecting â—nd his Conscience as a Governour obliging him to be careful of his Charge The Objection is Frivolous that This Supposition opens a Dore to Tyranny because that at This Rate a Prince has no more but to pretend a Danger and Then to do what he Pleases 'T is very right a Prince may Tyrannize under This Colour but 't is as certain that a People cannot Scruple This Inconvenience without incurring a Greater for 't is an Opinion Destructive of Government it self all Subjects being equally expos'd to the same Hazzard under all Governments and it is inevitable that either the King must have it in his Power to Oppresse his People or the People have it in Theirs to Destroy their Sovereign and betwixt the Ills of Tyranâ—y and Rebellion all the world knows the Disproportion Wherefore let Subjects hope and believe the Best of their Prince his Will and Inclination without medling with his Power for it is not lesse His Interest to be well Obey'd and Belov'd then it is Theirs to be well Govern'd Yet when a Prince by Exigencies of State finds himself forc'd to waive the Ordinary Path and Course of Law the Lesse He swerves the Better and the more unwilling He appears to Burthen his People the more willing shall he find Them to serve Him Especially he should be Cautelous where men's Estates or Freedoms are the Question to make the Necessity as Manifest as is possible and the Pressure as Light and as Equall as Consists with his Honour and Convenience Mixing however with This General Indulgence such a Particular Severity where his Authority is Disputed that the Obedient may have Reason to Love his Goodnesse and the Refractary as much to Fear his Displeasure By These Means may a Prince preserve himself from the Hatred of his People without exposing himself to their Contempt and in Order to the avoiding of That too wee 'll take up This Observation by the way That Subjects do Generally Love or Hate for Their own Sakes but when they despise a Prince it is for some Personal Weaknesse or Indignity in Himself Nothing makes a Monarch Cheaper in the Eyes of his People then That which begets an ill opinion either of his Prudence or Courage and if they find once that he will either be Over-reach'd or Over-aw'd they have his measure By Courage here we do not intend a Resolution only against Visible and Pressing Dangers but an Assurance likewise and Firmness of mind against Audacious and Threatning Counsels The Prudence we intend is of a more extensive Notion and from the most Mysterious Affaires of Royalty descends to the most Private and Particular Actions of a Princes Life It enters into his Cabinet-Counsels and Resolves his Publique Acts of State his very Forms of Language and Behaviour his Exercises and Familiar Entertainments In fine It is scarce lesse Dangerous for a Sovereign to separate the Prince from the Person even in his dayly â—ractices and Conversations then to permit Others to Divide Them in their Arguments And in a word to secure himself from Contempt it behoves a Monarch to Consider as his most Deadly Enemies such as Brave his Authority and by no means to allow even in his most Acceptable Servants and most Familiar Humours too great a Freedom toward his Person Not but that a Sovereign may in many Cases Familiarize with his Subjects and by so doing win the Reputation of a Wise and Gracious Prince Provided that the sweetnesse of his Nature cause him not to forget the Severity of his Office and that his Stooping to his People prove not an Emboldening of Them to come up to Him This is a Course to Prevent Sedition in the First Cause and check it in the Bud. But if it come once to shew it self and spread there is first Requisite upon a Cleare and Open Proofe a Speedy Execution of Lawes to the Utmost Rigour I say upon a Cleare and Open Proof for in such cases 't is of great Advantage to a State to make the Crime as evident as the Punishment that the People may at once Detest the Fact and Approve the Iustice. I say Likewise a speedy execution for Delay brings many Inconveniences It gives a Faction Time to Contrive and Unite and Boldnesse to Attempt for it looks as if They that sit at the Helme were either more sensible of The Danger or lesse mindfull of their Duty then becomes them Lastly whereas it is added to the Utmost Rigour My meaning is not to extend the Severity to a Multitude of Offenders but to Deterre the Generality by making some few and Dreadfull Examples Nay my Advice should be to Pick These Few too They should not be Fools Madmen or Beggers but the Boldest the Wisest the most Circumspect and Wealthy of the Party the Leaders and first Starters of the Quarrell to shew that neither their Confidence should Protect them nor their Shifts and Politiques avayle them But above All let not their Mony save Them for That 's no other then Setting of a Price upon the Head of the Sovereign Another Expedient to Stop a spreading mischief is for a Prince to keep a watchfull eye over Great Assemblyes which are either Irregular and Lawlesse or Regular and Constant or Arbitrary and Occasionall Concerning the First it is seldome seen where the Maner of a Meeting is â—umultuary that the Businesse of it is not so too and where Many Concurrâ— in One Unlawfull Act 't is no hard matter to persuade them to agree in Another So that to frustrate the Ends and Prevent the Consequences of such Meetings the surest way is for the Soveraign to employ his Authority Timely and strictly to Prohibit them If That does no Good He has no more to doe but Instantly to Scatter them by force and single out the Heads of the Riot for Exemplary Punishment Touching Conventions which are Regular and Steady It concernes the Chief Magistrate not to be without his Creatures and Discoverers in Those Assemblies and to see that they be well Influenc'd as to the Government For Instance when the People Meet to Chuse Officers when Those Officers meet to advise upon Businesse 't is worth the while for a Prince to learn how the Pulse Beats and Principally to Over-watch Churches and Courts of Iudicature Both in regard of the hazzard of Errours in matters of Law and Religion and of the Multitude being ever in readiness and Humour to Entertein them As to Meetings Arbitrary and Occasionall heed must be taken to the Persons assembling the Occasion which brings them Together and the Matter whereupon they Treat which we shall handle in their proper places and so passe from Generalls to Particulars beginning with the CHURCH Sect. I. By what means Haeresies and
the generality of the People discharging Counsellors and Iudges of their Allegiance and threatning them with Excommunication in case they disobeyed the Assembly All this they did according to the Covenant and whether This was Religion or Ambition let the World judge These Affronts drew the King down with an Army to the Borders and with two miles of Barwick the two Bodies had an Enterview March 28. 1639. But the Scots craving a Treaty his Majesty most graciously accorded it Commissioners were appointed Articles agreed upon and a Pacification Concluded Iune 17. Not one Article of this Agreement was observ'd on the Covenanters part but immediately upon the Discharge of his Majesties Forces the Scots brake forth into fresh Insolencies and Encroachments upon the Prerogative addressing to the French King for assistance against their Native Soveraign And yet the Quarrel was as they pretended for the Protestant Religion and against Popery In August 1640. they entred England and upon a Treaty at Rippon soon after a cessation is agreed upon referring the decision of all differences to a more General Treaty at London In November began the Long Parliament and now the Scene is London Where with great License and Security Parties are made and Insolences against the Government committed and Authorised under protection of the Scotch Army and the City-Tumults By degrees matters being prepar'd and ripened they found it opportune soon after to make something a more direct attempt upon the Soveraignty but by request first and resolving if that way fail to try to force it In Ian they Petition for the Militia In February they secure the Tower and in March Petition again for 't but so that they Protest if his Majesty persist to deny it they are Resolv'd to take it And the next day it is Resolv'd upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put into a Posture of defence by Authority of both Houses of Parliament In April 1642. the Earl of Warwick seizes the Navy and Sir Iohn Hotham Hull Refusing the King entrance which was Iustified by an Ensuing Vote and his Majesties Proclayming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Privilege In May the pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trayned Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the Country for a Regiment of the Trayned Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsell intended to make a Warr against his Parliament and that whosoever should assist him were Traytors They proceed then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seize his Majesties Revenue and declare that whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be Questioned either by the King or Subjects No Precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Sovereign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voyce The levying of Warr against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his presence is not a levying of Warr against the King but a levying Warr against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying Warr against the King Treason cannot be committed against his Person otherwise then as he was Intrusted They have Power to judge whether he discharge his Trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments Patterns there would be no cause to complain of want of Modesty or Duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law Having stated and extended their Powers by an Absurd Illegal and Impious severing of the Kings Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in Execution And to subject the sacred Authority of a Lawfull Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headlesse Parliament and That 's the Business of the 19. Propositions demanding That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be menaged by consent and Apprebation of Parliament all the great affairs of State Privy Councell Ambassadours and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by Their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as They should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit and Vote in Parliament They desire further that his Majesty would discharge his Guards Eject the Popish Lords out of the House of Peers and put the Penal Lawes against them strictly in Execution and finally that the Nation may be govern'd either by the Major part of the Two Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Major part of the Councell and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon These terms they insisted and Rais'd a Warr to Extort them So that 't is clear they both design'd and fought to Dethrone his Majesty and exercise the Soveraign Power Themselves which was to suit their Liberty of Acting to That of Sitting and to make themselves an Almighty as well as an Everlasting Parliament CAP. IV. The Instruments and Means which the Conspirators imployed to make a Party THat Their Design was to Usurp the Government is Manifest Now to the Instruments and Sleights they us'd to compass it The Grand Projectors knew very well that the strength of their Cause depended upon the favour of the Ignorant and Licencius Multitude which made them court all people of That Mixture to their Party for men of Brain and Conscience would never have agreed to a Conspiracy against so clear a Light so just an Interest and Those they found their fast Friends whom neither the Horrour of Sin nor the brightest evidence of Reason was able to work upon To fit and dispose Both Humours to their purpose the first scruple they Started was Religion which taken as they used it in the external form and jâ—ngle of it is beyond doubt the best Cloke for a Knave and the best Rattle for a Fool in Nature Under This Countenance the Murther of the King pass'd for a Sacrifice of Expiation and those Brute-Animals that scarce knew the Bible from the Alcoran were made the Arbitratours of the Difference The fear of Popery was the Leading Iealousie which Fear was much promoted by Pamphlets Lectures and Conventicles Still coupling Popery and Prelacy Ceremonies and the Abominations of the Whore by these resemblances of the Church of England to That of Rome tacitly instilling and bespeaking the same Disaffection to the one which the people had to the other Their Zeal was first employ'd upon the Names of Priests and Altar the Service-book Church-habits and Ceremonies From Thence
the Fourth of that Name formally Degraded and Cast into a Monastery by Decree of Parliament and Pepin Install'd in his Stead Thus did the Son of the Last Great Subject make himself the First of the Second Race of Kings of which in requital for too much said upon the First I shall say nothing at all Nor much more upon This Subject save only that Charles the VII and his Successour Lewis the XI Laid the first firm Foundation of the Military Power to which Charles the VIII Francis the I. c. have since furnish'd their Additionals and Superstructures to make the Tyranny complete 'T is Truth the Splendor and Profusion of the Court and Camp is Dazling and Prodigious they swim in Pleasures and Plenty but he that turns his Eye toward those Miserable Animals the Peasants that with their Bloud and Sweat Feed and Support that Luxe and Vanity with hardly bread for their own Mouths will find it much a different Prospect the great Enhansers of the Charge clayming Exemption from the burthen of it He that would see the Glory of the One Part and the â—lavery of the Other needs only read L'ESTAT dela FRANCE of 1661. Treating of the Officers of the Crown Honours Governments Taxes Gabelles c. He shall there find the Venality of Officeâ—s and Their Rates the Privileges of the Nobility and Their Encâ—rochments Who are Exempt from Payments or rather that the Country-man Payes for All. To make an end let him also observe the Power and Partiality of their Supereminent Parliament of Paris The Book I mention is of undeniable Authority wherein Accompt is given of at the least Eight Millions English arising from Three Taxes only and for the sole behoof and Enterteinment of the Souldiery their Tailles Taillon and Subsistance Beside their Aydes an Imposition upon all sorts of Marchandise Salt excepted which must needs be a Vast Income and their Gabellâ—s upon Salt that brings in near Two Millions more Not to Insist upon Casualties and infinite other Inventions for squeezing which they Practise The Plough mainteins the Army Give them their Due their Noblesse are brave and Accomplish'd men and the Brunt of all Hazzards lies totally upon Them but scarce in Nature is there a more abject Commonalty and to conclude such is their Condition that without Warr thâ—y cannot Live if not Abroad they are sure to have iâ— at Home Let it be Noted too the Taxes follow'd their Army not their Army the Taxes for 't is One thing to Levy Mony to Raise Guards and Another thing to Levy Guards to Raise Mony the One appearing to be done by Consent the Other by Force I use Guards and Army promiscuously as only taking a Guard for a Small Army and an Aâ—my for a Stronger Guard IF a Standing Army subjects France to so many Inconveniences whereof History is full where the Strength lies in the Nobility How much more Hazzardous was it to England where the welfare of the whole depended upon the Affections and Interest of the Middle-rated People Especially under an Usurper that was driven to uphold himself upon the daily consumption of the Nation and a Body that becomes every day Weaker then Other must not expect to be long-liv'd So much for the Inconvenience of Cromwell's Standing Army as to the Situation of England together with a View of the Effects of it in France Wee 'll now consider what Welcome it was like to find upon the Point of Experience or Custome Alteration of Customes is a work of Hazzard even in Bad Customes but to Change Customs under which a Nation has been happy for Innovations which upon Experience they have found Fatal to them is matter of great Perill to the Undertaker But I look upon Oliver's Case as I do upon a Proposition of such or such a Mate at Chesse where there are several wayes to come within One on 't and None to Hit it The Devil and Fortune had a mind to Puzzle him He Prefers his Pawnes Transposes Shifts his Officers but all will not do he still wants either Men or Mony if he Disbands he has too few of the One if he holds up he has too little of the Other Such in Truth was This Tyrants Exigence that he was forc'd to That which the Lawful â—ossessours of the English Crown would never venture upon No nor the Usurpers neither before Our Blessed Reformers of 1641. But Where will Those People Stay That thorough God and Majesty make way Our Saxon Kings contented themselves with a Law What Armes every man of Estate should find and a mulâ—t upon such as did Detractare Militiae Edmond Ironside after his Duell with Camillus the Dane and a Composition to divide the English and Danish Kingdoms betwixt them and their Heirs kept no Army on Foot to Guard the Agreement Neither did The Danes who after His Death Treacherously Seiz'd the Kingdom to maintein their Conquest William the Conquerour that subdu'd both English and Danes thought himself safe enough in Creating Tenures by Knights Service and permitting Proprieties though at That time under such Jealousies that he took divers of his English Prisoners into Normandy with him for fear of a Commotion in his Absence William Rufus and after Him his Brother Henry the First tho' the Usurpers of the Senior Right of their Elder Brother Robert set up his Rest upon the same Termes And so did Henry the II. after a Long Contest with King Stephen and notwithstanding the unruliness of most of his Sonnes Henry III. and then Edward I. after the Barons Warrs Employ'd no Standing Army to secure themselves neither did Edward or Richard the Second notwithstanding a Potent Faction of the Nobility bandying against the Latter of them Neither did the Henries IV. V. VI. in the Grand Schism of York and Lancaster ever approve of it Nor Henry VII as Wise and Iealous as any of his Predecessours If any thing could have warranted the Adventure methinks the Tâ—epsie-turvy and Brouillery which Henry the VIII introduc'd might have perswaded or Provok'd it But neither There nor in the following Tosse and Tumble of Religion from Edward VI. to Queen Mary and then back again to Queen Elizabeth was it put in Practice King Iames had no temptation to it King Charles the Martyr was indeed charg'd with the Intention of it and so he was with being Popishly affected In Truth with what not and the One as True as the Other But who were They that laid This to His Charge Even Those very Persons some of them that advised Oliver to keep a Standing Army of 10000 Horse and 20000 Foot to Aw and Scourge the Nation A Course unknown to our Forefathers and by the Best and Worst of Former Princes equally disallow'd the Bad not judging it Safe nor the Good Expedient But other more Convenient and as Effectual means they had either to Prevent Dangers or Suppress them
Body meet dayly conferring and dispersing their Compleints and Clamours they Break at last and Then they Tumult How many Thousand Persons are there in England that Live from Hand to Mouth only upon the Trades of Cloth and Ribands and 't is the same in Utopia To Conclude Pay strikes deep and takes off in great measure That Odium and Envy which usually attends the Splendor Pomp and Luxury of Courts A word now to the Camp Sect. IV. The CAMP THe Two Grand Interests of the Souldiery are Pay and Honour that is such Honour as belongs to them as Sword-men As for Instance 't is their Profession not to put up Affronts They do not love to have their Under-Officers rais'd over their heads New-Modelling or Disbanding is a Thing they do not like and a Publique disgrace is never to be forgiven By Ill Order in These Two Particulars are commonly occasion'd Mutinies and Revolts which become then most perillous when a disobliged General has a Purse to Engage a Discontented Army We speak here of an Army Employ'd by a Prince as a Security against his own Subjects which is quite another Case then against a Foreign Enemy for the same Popular and Ambitious Humour that in a Commander Abroad is most Proper and Necessary is on the Contrary as Dangerous at home The safety of the State depending only upon the Insuperable Virtue and Fidelity of such a Person Some Armies we have known to Prove Troublesome and to Divide upon Pretenses of Religion but a Holy War is a Contradiction and a Story only fit to passe upon Women and Children Upon the whole it seems that an Army within it self and without any Separate Interest may be troublesome upon These Three Accompts Either Want of Pay which causes a General Mutiny or Disgrace which more Peculiarly reflecting upon such or such Officers Troupes or Parties provokes Animosities Factions and Revolts or Ambition which more directly attempts upon the Sovereignty It may be also Hazzardous by reason of some Errour in the Constitution of it That is if it be composed of Persons Ill-affected to the Government it cannot rationally be expected that it should labour to Preserve what it wishes to Destroy But we are treating of Distempers acquir'd and rather proceeding from the ill menage of an Army then from the first Mis-choyce or founded in the Iudgment of it Concerning a Standing-Army enough is said in the foregoing Chapter a word wee 'll add It is in This Regard an Affair of a Peevish Quality that either a General has too little Power to do his Master's businesse or enough to do his own As it is not safe for a Monarch at any time to entrust the Chief Officer of an Army with so much Power for fear of a Sedition as may enable him to move a Rebellion so is it a work of great Skill and Difficulty so dexterously to Resume or Ballance that over-grown Power as to bring in under Command without discovering such a Jealousie as may Provoke him to abuse it Let This suffice as to the Disorders of an Army within it self Another Hazzard is lest it be Corrupted into a Dependence upon some other Interest into which Defection it may be partly Driven by the Neglect or Unkindnesse of the Prince and partly Drawn by the Allurements of Profit and Reward Having spoken of the Mischief a Seditious Army may Doe very Briefly let us behold what mischiefes a Vitious and undisciplin'd Army may Cause There never fails to be an Opposition betwixt the Civill and the Military Power and in like maner betwixt the People and the Souldiery Whom nothing else can Reconcile but downright Force and Necessity So that the fairest State of a Nation over-aw'd by an Army of their own Countrymen is an extorted Patience accompany'd with a Readinesse to embrace any opportunity of working their Deliverance If at the best the bare appearance of a Force be so Generally distastful what Havock will not the Licentious abuse of it Cause in a Kingdom Especially in Populous Towns where One Affront Exasperates a Million and 't is not two hours work to destroy an Army A. Royall Guard is of another Quality and such it ought to before Choice and Number as both suitable to the Charge they undertake for the Safety of That Sacred Person and sufficient to the Execution of it Sect. V. The CITY BY the City we intend the Metropolis of a Kingdom which in many Respects challenges a Place and Consideration in This Chapter of Seditions Particularly in Regard of Inclination and Power There is not Generally speaking so fair an Intelligence betwixt the Court and City as for the Common Good of Both were to be wish'd and This proceeds Chiefly from a Pride of Bloud on the One side and of Wealth on the Other breeding a mutual Envy between them This Envy by degrees boyles up to an Animosity and Then Tales are Carryed to the Monarch of the insolence of the Citizens and Stories on the other side to the People of the Height and Excesses of the Court and Here 's the Embryo of a Sedition From Hence each Party enters into a Crosse Contrivement These how to tame the Boldness of the One and Those how to supplant the Greatnesse of the Other Both equally unmindful of their Inseparable Concerns the Citizen that he holds his Charter of the Bounty of his Prince and the Courtier that it is a flourishing Trade that makes a Flourishing Empire By These Heats is a City-Humour against the Court emprov'd into a Popular Distemper against the King and here 's the Inclination of a Disorder'd City As to their Power they have Men Money and Armes at an houre 's warning the very Readynesse of which Provision makes it worth double the Proportion Their Correspondencies are Commonly strong and Firme and their dependencies Numerous for the Pretense being Trade and Liberty books in all Places of the same Interest to the same Faction Beside That General device seeming Religion that stamps the Cause and Prints a GOD WITH US upon it In fine a Potent and a Peevish City is a shrew'd Enemy Now to the Maner of Actuting Those Seditious Inclinations and Emproving These Abilities to do Mischief Their first work is to Possesse the Vulgar with This Notion that in some Cases the Monarch is limited and the Subject free intending that the Prince is bounded by the Law and that the People are at Liberty where the Law is silent and so likewise in points of Conscience by which Argument the People Govern where there is no expresse Law and the King only where there is Taking it once for Granted that the Prince is Limited by the Law which Conscientiously he is for in observing the Law he does but keep his own word They presently Conclude that if the King transgresse the Rule of his Power he forfeits the Right of it and that for such a Violation he is accomptable
upon his Subjects As to the Rest if the Prince finds The Temper of the People Peevish and Factions Boyling such as no Clemency and Goodnesse can Engage the lesse Subject for Clamour he leaves them 't is the Better and if upon Convening he finds the Mixture Petulant and Soure he may with the lesse noise Dismisse them According to the Choyce of Persons will be the Menage of Affaires The Publique Good Particular Iustice and the Dignity of the Assembly will be the Chief Care of a good Choyce but if the Choyce be Bad These Noble Offices and Regards will be the Least part of their Businesse They fall then into Partialities and Sidings Helpe mee to day and I 'll helpe you to morrow Acts of State will be Biass'd by Particular Interests Matters Concluded by Surprize rather then by any formal Determination and the Reverence of Order and Reason will be dash'd out of Countenance by the Voicings of Faction and Clamour As Politique Bodies have no Souls so Publique Persons should have no Bodies but leave those Impediments of Iustice and Distractions of Counsell Project and Passion at the Dore of the Senate In short where such a Partiality happens as we here Imagine the Two main Mischieves are These The Iniquity of the end or the Disorder of the Means The Former may in some Measure be Prevented by an Oath to deal â—prightly but the Grand Failing was in the Election The Latter may be Regulated by such a Clearnesse of Rule and Methode together with such a Strictnesse in the Observation of That Rule that both Every man may know his Duty and no man dare to Transgresse it But Concerning the Subject Matter now of their Consultations There lies the Perill when they come to reach at Affairs Forreign to their Congnisance The Hazzard is This stepp by stepp They Encroche upon the Sovereign Clayming a Right to One Encrochement from the President of another So that Meeting with an unwary Prince they Steal away his Prerogative by Inches and when perchance His Successour comes to resume his Right That Pilfery is call'd the Liberty of the Subject and There 's a Quarrell started betwixt the King and his Subjects Then comes the Doctrine in Play that Kings are Chosen for the Good of the People and that the Discharge of that Trust and Care is the Condition of his Royalty The very Truth is All Government may be Tyranny A King has not the Means of Governing if he has not the Power of Tyrannizing Here 's the short of the Matter We are certainly Destroy'd without a Government and we may be Destroy'd with one So that in Prudence we are rather to chuse the Hazzard of a Tyranny then the Certainty of being worry'd by One-another Without more words The Vulgar End of Government is to keep the Multitude from Cutting one anothers Throats which they have ever found to be the Consequence of Casting off their Governours When Popular Conventions have once found This Trick of gaining Ground upon the Sovereign they catch their Princes commonly as they do their Horses with a Sive and a Bridle a Subsidy and a Perpetuall Parliament If they 'll take the Bit they shall have Oates But These are the Dictates of Ignorance and Malice for such is the Mutuall Tie and Interest of Correspondency betwixt a Monarch and his People that Neither of them can be safe or Happy without the Safety and Felicity of the Other The best way to prevent the Ill Consequence of the Peoples Deputies acting beyond their Crbe is Clearly and Particularly to State Those Reserves of the Prerogative with which they are not to Meddle And so wee 'll put an End to This Section and Chapter CAP. XI Certain Reflections upon the Felicity and Advantages of the Government of England with some Observations upon The present Juncture IN the Two last Chapters next antecedent to This we have at Volly discours'd the Rise Progresse and in some sort the Remedies of Seditions without particular Application to Times Persons or Places It is our Present Purpose to bring the Question nearer Home by Looking a little into the Providence and Wisdome of our Forefathers The Happy Constitution of the English Government And Then we must not passe This Late Degenerate Race of Cannibal-Christians without a Word or Two From Whence to the Distracted Iuncture we now live in and There wee 'll Finish Very Prudent and Effectuall both for the Preventing and Suppressing of Seditions was the Provision of This Nation till the Authority of the Prince was shoulder'd out by the Insolency of the People who of the Happiest Subjects in Nature as well in Respect of the Prince as of the Government worthily became the most Prostitute Slaves to the Basest of Tyrannies and of Tyrants The Principall Courses employ'd for the Prevention and Discovery of Practices against the State were These First the Custome of Fridborghes so call'd before the Conquest and Frank-pledges since which was beyond Doubt an Incomparable Expedient an Invention I dare not call it for it 's Originall may be ascribed rather to a Necessity then Contrivance This was a Custome that obliged every Free-man at the Age of Fourteen years either to find a Surety for his fidelity to the Publique or to suffer Imprisonment Whereupon so many Neighbours to the Number of Ten or a Dozein became Bound one for another and each Particular both for Himself and his Fellows which Combination they call'd a Pledge The Condition was This. If any man Offended and Run away The â—est stood engaged either to bring him forth within 31 dayes or else to answer for his Offence And that none might scape it was imposed upon the Sheriff at every County Court to take the Oath of Persons as they grew up to the age of Fourteen and to see that they were all entred in some Pledge or Other So that upon any misdemeaner and escape the Magistrate had but to enquire into what Pledge the Offender was entred Oathes of Allegeance were also to be given in the Court-Leets to all Males of above Sixteen And Enquiries twice a year in the same Courts A Charge was given by Judges of the Kings Bench to the Grand Jury Impannell'd at Westminster as also by Them and other Judges of Assize in their Circuits twice a Year in every County to enquire of Treasons Seditions and Conspiracies Add to These the Care of the Statutes of 2 E. 3. cap. 3. 7 R. 2. cap. 13. 20 R. 2. cap. 1. that no man should come or go Armed before the Justices By the 17 of R. 2. cap. 8. and 14 â— 4. cap. 7. The Iustices of Peace shall enquire of Riots and Unlawfull Assemblies and arrest the Offenders Beside the Dreadfull Penalties in case of Treason and the Severity of the Law in cases of Misprision of Treason Were but This Vigilance duly employ'd who would venture his Head upon so desperate a Hazzard Nor was
The most Dangerous Poverty Corruption the Cause of Scarcity * A word us'd in Westminster Schoole when a Boy Counterfeits Sick Private Hoards breed Publique Penury The Composition of Wicked Ministers of State The Misery of them If either they look Back Forward Round about Above them Bâ—low or within them The Sollicâ—tous estate of the Guilty Taxes may cause or occasion a Scarcity divers wayes Subjâ—cts are to Obey without Disputing ☜ Note Leave no Marque standing to remember a Discourtesie by Josh. 4. 6. Shiftings passes for Wisdome Excessive Building Knavery of â—radesmen Pride The Coâ—ntry is sure to be undone by a Waâ—r The Fruits of it A Discontented Nobleman Ambition Pride Râ—venge The Rich Chuâ—le The Contentious Free bornâ—Subject ☜ The Dangerous mixture of a Representative The Designing Party Their Industry and Combination The Matter they work upon Their Maner of Proceedâ—ng ☜ The Permâ—tters of Seditious Contrivements The Deserters of their Trust are taken off by Profit Pleasure Vanity by Sloth and Neglect ☜ by Partiality Passion Fear or Personal Animosity Fools are fit Instâ—umâ—nts for Knâ—ves Love and Reverence are the Pillars of Majesty The Power of a Prince depends upon the Love of his People The Grâ—unds of Sedition Let a Prince Stick to his Laws and his People will stick to him The Oath of Protecting implyes a Power of Protecting Where a King has it not in his Power to Oppresse his People They have it in Theirs to Destroy their King ☜ A Mixture of Indulgence and Severity Obliges the Loyall and Aws the Refractary The Influeâ—ce of Prudence and Courage Aâ— Prince that bears Affronts and Familiarities from his Subjects Lessens himself How to hindâ—r the Sprâ—ading of a Seditious Humour ☜ Let a Prince keep an Eye over Great Assemblies Let him be Quâ—ck and Watchfull The mostdangeâ—â—us of all Sects A sure way to prerent Schisme Have a Care ☜ The Presbyterians Set-form And Methode Their Modesty ☞ The means of Preventing Schisme Object Petition fâ—â— Peace pag. 4 5. Answ. The Hazzards of Toleration ☜ The Foundaâ—ion of Presbytery ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 239. Let Pagans blush at These Christians ☜ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 263. The Growth of Schisme ☜ A Noble Resolve Let the Prince Reform betime And Impartially Note Ambition is the Cause no matter what 's the Cry Corrupt Divines and Lawyers are in the forlorne of all Rebellions ☞ But the Contrary are the Pillars and Blessings of Society The Common Crime of Vitious Lawyers is Avarice The Basest of Corruptions An Ignorant Judg is a Dangerous Minister And so is a Timorous A hard matter to make a good choice A Rule to Chuse by He nugâ— sâ—riâ— duc 〈◊〉 in mala ☞ A way to prevent Treasonous Mistakes The Contrivers of Seditions are of Three Sorts The Puritan ☞ Religion is but Talk Every man for himself A Traytour is of no Religion No ill Story The Presbyterian has gotten a Streyn A Ceremony may be as well impos'd as a 〈◊〉 ☜ ☞ Ambition dangerous in a Favourite A Caution Ambition does better in a Souldiour then in a Counsellour It is the Interest of a Prince to dispose of Offices by Particular Direction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 240. How to 〈◊〉 an Insolent Favourite The Danger of a Favourite that upholds a Faction And menage of his Design St. 〈◊〉 Bacon ☜ How to disappoint an Ambitious Design Favouritâ—s necessary to the Prince and desirable to the People Concerning the Choice of Servants Let them be Honest and Fit Of approved Loyalty to thâ— Father Not upon Recommendation Publique Natures for Publique Places Not One to all Purposes Let a Prince set his Confident his Bounds afore-hand In Points of Conscience Honour and Convenience let not a Favourite presse the Sovereign The Danger of Over greatnesse as to the People A Proud man in Power Easily crush'd A Covetous Great man The Mischief of False Intelligence Good Advice 〈…〉 Counsel 〈◊〉 ☞ Prudence provides for the worst Reward and â—unishment keep People in Order Honest Truths are Dangerous A Case put The Lower Region of the Court. Four or Five Beggers in Chief ☞ Corrupt Officers a General Pest. Ill-Pay the reason of Ill-Payment Want of Mony makes People Religious The Ill-principled Courtier Dangers from the Camp How Mutinies may be caused ☜ Good Pay will bear good Discipline Modelling and Disâ—banding are dangerous How to New-Modell an Army How to Dis-band The Causes of Revolts A good Choice is the best Security against a Revolt The Danger of an Illâ—order'd City ☜ Pretext of Religion is a dangerâ—us and wicked Quarrell Is there a God Or â—s there None All Seditions proceed from Misgovernment Begin with the Clergy to prevent Schisme Let the Magistracy be well-affected Oppression procur'd by Ill Instruments ☞ Though the Levy be Extraordinary let the way be Ordinary Privileges are Sacred ☞ Poverty is a terrible Enemy The Prince not to forsake his Metropoliâ— Let the Choice be Legall and Prudent ☜ Better the Sovereign Reforme then the Counsell The effects of a Good Choyce and of a Bad. The Mischieves of Partiality ☜ 〈◊〉 a â—yranny then 〈◊〉 Anarchy The Antient Prudence of England for the Prevenâ—ing of Seditâ—ons The Custome of 〈◊〉 or Frank-Pledges The Condition of it Oathes of Allegeance The Judges Charge concerning Tâ—easons c. Knights Service Commission of Array Libido Dominandi Causa Bâ—lli Sal. The King is above Ambition And the Commons Below it ☞ The Interests of the King and Commons are Inseperable The Peerage are either as Petty Kings 〈◊〉 Subjâ—cts The Excellent Government of England was subverâ—ed by a mean â—action Security lost us ☞ A word to my Back fâ—iends Object Answ. Ask Doctor Owen and 〈…〉 That was Anglicâ—e D. â— A Private Person may discover a Publique Enemy The King the Law the Parliment and the Counsell are Sacred Beware of Imputing the faults of a Faction to the Government The Faction has a great Advantage The Presbyterians are True to their Principles but not to their Profession Their Industry ☞ Two Libels The Libellers Character Kings had need to be well enform'd ☜ ☞ 8 H. 6. 11. 11 H. 6. 6. Edict Iuly 7. 1606. Ill Appearances The Custome of Frank-Pledges revived ☜ Discoveries Rewarded Judges in their circuits are good Intelligencerg ☞ How This Discourse may become usefull Treasons Encouraged ☜ Why was Late King Murther'd Not for Religion Nor Tyranny Nor Cruelty Nor for want of Abilities and Valour Nor for Impiety or Intemperance The Kings Indulgence was his Ruine Presbytery is a Specifique Poyson to Monarchy king Iames his Answer to a Presbyterian Queen Elizabeth â—uieted the Schismatiques by Severity Sâ—r did King Iames. Three Disadvantages of King Charles the martyr The Originall of his Troubles The Progresse of them The House of Commons Affronts him The King put to a sad Choice ☜ The Kings Speech The Bounties of the Faction are Baites The Petition of Right His Majesties first Answer to the Petition of Right The Commons Cavill The King Passes the Bill The Commons Requitall His Majesty Explains himself The Commons Inquisition and Insolence ☜ The Protestation of the Commons Their Contest and Dissolution The Kings Mercy Abusâ—d ☜ Abus'd again ☜ The King Betray'd by his Counsell Scotch Declar. Pag. 124. The Kings Mercy again abus'd The Ingratitude of the Scotch Presbyterians Now see the English The Bounty and Grace of the King The Requital of the Presbyterians ☞ His Majesties Patience and Goodnesse Ruin'd him The Kings grand Fatalityes
once mov'd the best Remedy is to cut off the Spring that feeds it by pleasing all sorts of People so far as Possible and by Disobliging none but upon Necessity Which Publique Tendernesse must be so menaged that the Majesty of the Prince be not lost in the Goodnesse of the Person for nothing can be more Dangerous to a Monarch then so to over-court the Love of his People as to lose their Respect or to suffer them to impute that to his Easinesse which ought to be ascrib'd purely to his Generosity Offences of That Daring and Unthankfull Quality can scarce be pardon'd without some hazard to the Authority that remits them Secret Contempts being much more fatal to Kings then Publick and Audacious Malice the latter commonly spending it self in a particular and fruitlesse Malignity toward the Person and that with Terror too as being secur'd under a Thousand Guards of Majesty and Power whereas the Other privily teints the whole Masse of the People with a Mutinous Leaven giving Boldnesse to contrive Courage to execute and if the Plot miscarryes there 's the hope of Mercy to Ballance the peril of the Undertaking For a Conclusion of this Point He that but Thinks Irroverently of his Prince deposes him Concerning the Materials of Sedition viz. Poverty and Discontentment it would be endless to dissolve these General Heads into Particularâ—â—leâ— â—â—leâ— the best advice in This Case must be General too that is to endeavour to remove whatever Causes them referring the Particulars to Counsell and Occasion 'T is very well observ'd by the Lord St. Albans touching Poverty So many overthrown Estates so many Votes for Troubles and if this Poverty and Broken Estate in the Better sort be joyn'd with a Want and Necessity in the mean People the Danger is Great and Imminent which to prevent Above all things sayes the same Author good Policy is to be used that the Treasure and Moneys in a State be not gathered into few Hands For otherwise a State may have a great Stock and yet starve And Money is like Muck not good except it be spread And again A numerous Nobility causeth Poverty and Inconvenience in a State for it is a Surcharge of Expence As to the Seeds of Discontentments they are as various as the Humours they encounter dependent many times upon Opinion and inconsiderable in Themselves however Notorious in their Effects Touching the Discontentments Themselves it is the Advice of the Lord Verulam That no Prince measure the danger of them by This Whether they be Iust or Unjust for that were to imagine People to be too Reasonable Nor yet by This whether the griefs whereupon they rise be in Fact great or small For They are the most Dangerous where the Fear is greater then the Feeling Such were those furious and implacable Iealousies that started the late Warr which doubtless may more properly be accompted among the Dotages of a Disease or the Illusions of a dark Melancholy then the Deliberate Operations of a Sober Reason Proceed we now from the Matter and more remote Causes of Seditions to the Approches and Prognosticks of them CAP. II. The Tokens and Prognostiques of Seditions IT is in many Cases with Bodies Politique as it is with Natural Bodies Both perish by Delaying till the Distemper be grown too strong for the Medicine Whereas by watching over and applying to the first Indispositions of the Patient how easie is the Remedy of a Disease which in one day more perhaps becomes Incurable Some take it for a poynt of Bravery not to own any Danger at a Distance lest they should seem to fear it Others are too short-sighted to discern it So that betwixt the Rash and the Stupid a large Proportion in the Division of the World we are past the help of Physick before we can perswade our selves we need it Dangers sayes the Incomparable Bacon are 〈◊〉 more light if they once seem light and more danger have deceived Men than forced them Nay it werâ— better to meet some Dangers half way though they come nothing near than to keep too long a watch upon their Approches for if a man watch too long it is odds he will fall asleep Neither let any man measure the Quality of the Danger by That of the Offender for again 't is the Matter not the Person that is to be consider'd Treason is contagious and a Raskal may bring the Plague into the City as well as a Great man I do the rather press This Caution because Security was the fault of those to whom I direct it But what avails it to wary of Dangers without the skill and providence to foresee and prevent them Or what hinders us from the fore-knowledge of Those Effects to which we are led by a most evident and certain train of Causes States have their Maladies as well as Persons and Those Ill habits have their peculiar Aecidents and Affections their proper Issues and Prognostiques upon the true Iudgement of which Circumstances depends the Life and Safety of the Publique Not to play the fool with an Allegory Be it our care to observe the Gathering of the Clouds before they are wrought into a Storm Among the Presages of foul weather the Lord St. Albans reckons Libels and Licentious Discourses against the Government when they are frequent and open and in like sort false newes often running up and down and hastily embraced to the disadvantage of the State We need not run beyond our Memories to Agree This Point it being within the Ken of our own Notice that Libells were not only the Forerunners but in a high Degree the Causes of our late Troubles and what were the frequent open and Licentious Discourses of 〈◊〉 in Pulpets but the ill-boding Play of 〈◊〉 before a Tempest We may remember also the false Newes of Plotts against the Religion and Liberâ—ies of the Nation and how the King was charg'd as an Abettor of the Design We may remember likewise how the Irish Bloud was cast upon the accompt of his late Sacred Majesty even by Those men whose guilty Souls are to Reckon with Divine Justice for every Drop of it Neither have we forgotten with what Care and Diligence These Falshoods were dispers'd with what Greedinesse they were swallow'd nor what ensu'd upon it If we look well about us we may finde This Kingdom at this Instant labouring under the same Distempers the â—â—esse as Busie and as Bold Sermons as factious Pamphlets as seditious the Government defam'd and the Defamers of it if Presbyteriane scape better then their Accusers The Lectures of the Faction are throng'd with Pretended Converts and Seandalous Reports against the King and State are as current now as they were twenty years agoe These were ill Tokens Then and do they signifie just nothing Now What means all This but the new Christening of the Old Cause the doing over again of the Prologue to the last Tragedy Sir Francis Bacon proceeds
that Disputing Excusing Cavilling upon Mandates and Directions is a kind of shaking of the Yoak and Assay of disobedience Especially if in those disputings they which are for the direction speak Fearfully and tenderly and those that are against it Audaciously Herein is Judiciously expressed the Motion or Gradation from Duty to Disobedience The first stepp is to Dispute as who should say I will if I may The very Doubt of obeying subjects the Authority to a Question and gives a dangerous hint to the People that Kings are accomptable to their Subjects To Excuse is a degree worse for That 's no other then a Refusal of Obedience in a tacit Regard either of an Unjust Command or of an Unlawfull Power To Cavil at the Mandates of a Prince is an express Affront to his Dignity and within one Remove of Violence Through these Degrees and slidings from Bad to Worse from one Wickednesse to Another our late Reformers travail'd the whole Scale of Treason as the Scene chang'd shifting their Habits till at last quitting the Disguise of the Kings Loyal Subjects they became his Murtherers What 's more familiar at this Day than Disputing his Majesties Orders disobeying his Proclamations and viligying Acts of Parliament Whereof there are so many and so Audacious Instances it shall suffice to have made this General mention of them Another Observation is that When Discords and Quarrels and Factions are carried openly and audaciously it is a sign the Reverence of Government is lost This was the temper of that Juncture when the Schismatieal Part of the two Houses and the Tumultuary Rabble joyn'd their Interests against Bishops and the Earl of Strafford which Insolence was but a Prelude to the succeeding Rebellion And are not Factions carryed Openly and Audaciously now when the Promoters and Iustifiers of the Murther of the late King are still continued publique Preachers without the least Pretence to a Retraction Dictating still by Gestures Shruggs and Signs That Treason to their Auditory which they dare not Utter What are their Sermons but Declamations against Bishops Their Covenant-keeping Exhortations but the contempt of an establish'd Law How it comes to pass Heaven knowes but These Honest Fellowes can come off for Printing and Publishing down-right Treason when I have much adoe to scape for Telling of it Whither these Liberties tend let any man look over his shoulder and satisfie himself When any of the Four Pillars of Government are mainly shaken or weakened which are Religion Iustice Counsell and Treasure men had need to pray for fair weather To speak only of the last The want of Treasure was the Ruine of the late King Through which defect his Officers were expos'd to be Corrupted his Counsells to be Betray'd his Armies to be ill Pay'd and consequently not well Disciplin'd Briefly where a Prince is Poor and a Faction Rich the Purse is in the wrong Pocket Multis utile Bellum is an assured and infallible Sign of a State disposed to Seditions and Troubles and it must needs be that where War seems the Interest of a People it should be likewise the Inclination of them Touching the General Matter Motives and Prognostiques of Sedition enough is said Wee 'l now enquire into the special cause of the late Rebellion CAP. III. The True Cause of the late Warr was AMBITION THE true Cause of the late Warr was Ambition which being lodg'd in a confederate Cabale of Scotch and English drew the corrupted Interests of both Kingdoms into the Conspiracy to wit the factious covetous Malecontents Criminals Debters and finally all sorts of men whose crimes necessities or Passions might be secur'd reliev'd or gratifi'd by a change of Government To these were joyn'd the credulous weak Multitude the clamour being Religion Law and Liberty And here 's the sum of the Design Pretence and Party This League we may presume was perfected in 1637. First from the corespondent Practices in both Nations appearing Manifestly about that time Next 't is remarkable that the English Pardon has a Retrospect to the beginning of the Scotch Tumults Ian. 1. 1637. Three years before the meeting of the Long Parliament which Provision seems to intimate That Conspiracy And now the Poyson begins to work Upon the 23 of Iuly in the same year according to a Publique Warning given the Sunday before the Dean of Edinburgh began to read the Service-Book in the Church of St. Giles whereupon ensued so horrid a Tumult that the Bishop was like to have been Murther'd in the Pulpit and after Sermon scaped narrowly with his life to his Lodgings The particular recital of their following Insolencies upon the Bishop of Galloway the Earls of Traquair and Wigton the besieging of the Councel-House and contempts of the Councell their Audacious Petitions against the Service-book and Canons I shall pass over as not belonging to my purpose Upon the 19 of Febr. following a Proclamation was publish'd against their Seditious Meetings which they encounter with an Antiprotest and presently erect their Publique Tables of Advice and Counsell for Ordering the Affairs of the Kingdom The Method whereof was This. Four principal Tables they had One of the Nobility a Second of the Gentry a Third of the Burroughs a Fourth of Ministers And These Four were to prepare Matters for the General Table which consisted of Commissioners chosen out of the Rest. The first Act of this General Table was their Solemn Covenant a Contrivance principally promoted by persons formerly engaged in a Conspiracy against the King and among others by the Lord Balmerino a Pardon'd Traytor and the Son of One. His Father had been a Favorite and principal Secretary to King Iames and rais'd by him out of Nothing to his Estate and Dignity Yet was this thankless Wretch Arraign'd for and Attainted of high Treason and after Sentence to be Hang'd Drawn and Quarter'd he was by the Kings Mercy Pardon'd and Restor'd Another eminent Covenanter was the Earl of Arguile of whom Walker gives this Accompt He brought his Father to a Pension outed his Brother of his Estate Kintyre ruin'd his Sisters by cheating them of their Portions and so enforcing them into Cloysters It must needs be a Conscientious Design with such Saints as These in the Head of it This Covenant was effectually no other then a Rebellious Vow to oppose the Kings Authority and Iustifie Themselves in the exercise of the Soveraign Power which they assum'd to a degree even beyond the claim of Majesty it self pleading the Obligation of the Covenant to all their Usurpations They Levyed Men and Moneys Seiz'd the Kings Magazines and Strong Holds Rais'd Forts Begirt his Castles Affronted his Majesties Proclamations Summon'd Assemblies Proclaim'd Fasts Deprived and Excommunicated Bishops Abolish'd Episcopacy Issued out Warrants to choose Parliament-Commissioners Renounced the Kings Supreme Authority Trampled upon Acts of Parliament pressing their Covenant upon the Privy Councell They gave the last Appeal to
comes into my mind of Mark 15. 18. Haile King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spat upon him and bowed the Head and did him Reverence This Impious Libell was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the Kings Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettours of these and other the like Indignities and Proclamation was accordingly made for the Apprehending of them which very Proclamation was Declared to be a Paper False Scandalous and Illegal After This Language what had they more to do but by Armed Violence to invade the Sovereignty and to emprove a loose and Popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastened too even beside the Termes of Ordinary Prudence to emplunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulfe into which their Sin and Folly was about to lead them To keep their Zeal and Fury waking the Faction had a singular Faculty at Inventing of Plots Counterfeiting Letters Intercepting Messages over-hearing Conspiracies which Artificial Delusions especially asserted by the pretended Authority of a Parliament and a Pulpit could not but work strong Effects of Scruple and Iealousie upon a prejudging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd That Power which afterward they Employ'd in Opposition to those very Ends for which they sware they Rays'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'll slipp the Warr and see in the next place what Government they Gave us in Exchange for That they had Subverted CAP. V. A short View of the Breaches and Confusions betwixt the Two Factions from 1648. to 1654. IT cannot be expected that a Power acquir'd by Bloud and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only United against Iustice and at Perpetual Variance with it self I say it cannot be expected that such a Power as This should be Immortal Yet is it not enough barely to argue the Fatality of Wickedness from the Certainty of Divine Vengeance and There to stopp Usurpers are not Rays'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follyes they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuâ—ty of their own Counsels down they Tumble Wherefore let us Enquire into the Springs and Reasons of their Fortunes and Falls as well as Gaze upon the Issues of them A timely search into the Grounds of one Rebellion may prevent another How the Religious Opposers of the late King advanced themselves against his Sacred Authority we have already shew'd be it our business here to Observe their workings one upon the other To begin with Them that began with Us The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterward to Establish Themselves by using Prerogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect on Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation then to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretense or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supreme Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more then they could overcome I mean great Difficulties in point of Interest and Conduct for those of Honour and Conscience they had subdu'd long since They strove however till opprest by a General Hatred and the Rebouud of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independents Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticisme of a Free-State The better half of which time being successfully Employ'd in the subjecting of Scotland and Ireland to their Power and Model and to complete their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Usurpations over his Royal Dominions their next work was to make themselves Considerable Abroad and 't was the Fortune of the Dutch to feel the First proof of That Resolution Betwivt these Rivall States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloudy the Last especially a Tearing one Upon the whole the Dutch Lost more but the English got little beside the Honour of the Victory in which particular the Kingdom pay'd dear for the Reputation of the Common-wealth This Success rays'd the Pride and Vanity of the English so that at next Bout nothing less would serve them than an Absolute Conquest But while they are Providing for it and in the Huff of all their Glory behold the Dissolution of the Long-Parliament which whether it Began or Ended more to the Satisfaction of the People is a Point not yet decided Dissolved however it is and Rebuk'd for Corruptions and Delayes by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsell of State compos'd of Persons entirely disaffected to the Common-wealth This Little Ridiculous Convention thought to have done mighty Matters but the Plot Vented and Vanish'd Some of their Memorable Fopperies are These The Famous Act concerning Mariages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessement of 120000 l. per Mensem they Voted down the Chancery and Tythes they Voted also a total Alteration of the Laws All of a mind they were not and for Distinction sake the company was divided into the Honest Party and the Godly Party Of the Former were Cromwell's Creatures and of the Other Barebones or rather Harrisons the Person they had design'd for General if they could perswade Cromwell to quit his Security for some additional Title of Dignity These Zealous Patriots Commonly brought their Bibles into the House with them and as I am Enform'd diverse of them were seeking the Lord with Vavasor Powell when This following trick was put upon them An Hour or two sooner in the morning then usuall Decemb. 12. he that they call'd their Speaker took the Chayre and it was presently Mov'd and Carry'd for several Reasons to re-assign their Power to him from whom they had it which was immediately persu'd and so they made Cromwell a Prince for making Them a Parliament This gratious Resignation produc'd that blessed Instrument of Government by which the Hypocrite was made Protector and now forsooth the style is chang'd from The Keepers of the Liberry of England by Authority of Parliament into Oliver Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. who was Installed and Sworn Decemb. 16. 1653. To his Assistance was Appointed a Counsell of 21. the Quorum 13. By whom immediately upon the Death of the Present Protector should be chosen one to succeed him alwayes excepted the Right Line from the choice 'T is suppos'd that Lambert had an eye upon himself in the reach of That Article and a Particular influence upon the drawing of it being at
That time Popular enough with the Army to hope for any thing A while after the Establishment of this Traytour comes forth an Ordinance Declaring Treasons and now his Highness thinks himself in the saddle especially having Beaten the Dutch into One Peace and Treated the Swede into Another which were Proclaim'd soon after Having run through the Narrative of those Considerable Changes and Confusions of Power which intervened betwixt the Murther of a most Gracious Prince and the appearing Settlement of an Usurping Tyrant wee 'll make a little stand here and look behind us The two Main Engines that made Cromwell Master of the Army were first The Self-denying Ordinance by which he worm'd out the Presbyterians and skrew'd in his own Party The Second was The Vote of March 19. 1646. for the Disbanding of so many Regiments and sending Others for Ireland This Vote was privily procur'd by himself and Ireton which he foresaw must necessarily enflame the Army and so it did never to be reconcil'd This Breach was the setting up of Cromwell and the Foundation of his succeeding Greatnesse It was the Impression of That Vote that Buffled and Purg'd the House in 47. Forced it in 48. and Dissolv'd it in 53. after which he call'd Another that Dy'd Felo de se and Bequeathed to his Excellency the Government Had the Devill himself Destroy'd that Faction the Nation would have Thank'd him for 't so t is no wonder if his Advance was smooth and Prosperous but now Hee 's Upp how to maintein his Power against a Generall Odium and Interest how to get himself forc'd to exchange That Temporary Title of Protector for the more Stable Legall and desirable Name of King without discovering his Insatiate Longing for it This is a Point of Mastery and Cunning and Possibly the Thing that brake his Heart was his Despaire to Accomplish it The Faction has already trod the Round of Government The Lords and Commons outed the King the Commons the Lords the Multitude the Commons and with the Fate of all Rebellious Courses seeking Rest but finding None At last up goes the Pageantry of a Monarch Cromwell whose Temper Streights and Politiques shall be the Subject of the ensuing Chapter CAP. VI. The Temper Streights and Politiques of Cromwel during his Protectorship THe Character of Thâ—â— glorious Rebell is no further my purpose then as iâ— leads to a right Iudgement of his 〈…〉 the Confusion of his Adorers Of strong Natural Parts I perswâ—â—e my self he was tho' some think otherwise â—â—puting all his Advantages to Corruption or Fortune which will not be deny'd however to have concurr'd powerfully to his Greatnesse Nor do I pretend to collect his Abilities from his Word any more then the World could his Meaning save that the more entangled his Discourses were I reckon them the more Iudicious because the fitter for his Businesse His Interest obliging him to a Reserve for he durst neither clearly Own his Thoughts nor Totally Disclaime them the One way endangering his Design and the Other his Person So that the skill of his Part lay in This neither to be mistaken by his Friends nor understood by his Enemies By this middle Course he gain'd Time to remove Obstacles and ripen Occasions which to emprove and follew was the peculiar Talent of that Monster To these enablements to Mischief he had a Will so prostitute and prone that to express him I must say He was made up of Craft and Wickednesse and all his Faculties nay all his Passions were Slaves to his Ambition In fine he knew no Other measure of Good and Bad but as things stood in This or That Relation to his Ends which I the less admire when I consider that he was brought up in a Presbyterian Schoole where Honour Faith and Conscience weigh nothing further then as they subserve to Interest But enough of This. In the foregoing Chapter we have Plac'd the Protector in the Chaire but not the King in the Throne the Power he has already but wants the Title and which is worse he dares not offer at it being equally affray'd to own his Longing or to misse it In This Distraction of Thought his Ielousie joyns with his Ambition Sollicitous on the One hand for his Family and on the Other for his Safety For his Family in point of Grandeur and for his Safety Thus. After his Death according to the Instrument the Counsell is to chuse a Successour and whoever gapes to be the One is supposed to wish for the Other which probably they had rather hasten then wait for So that This Miserable creature being peyned betwixt the Hazard either of enlarging his Power or having it thus dependent and the disdein of seeing it limited enters into a restlesse suspicion of his Counsell and no way to be quieted but by depressing Those that Rays'd him So much for the first Difficulty a Second follows His Design had These Three Grand Enemies The Royallists The Presbyterians and the Common-wealths-Men the Last of which compos'd the Grosse of his Army whom he had so inured to the Gust of Popularity and Freedom and so enflam'd against the Tyranny of King-ship that the bare Change of the word Common-weath to Kingdom had been enough to have cast all into a Revolt These were the main Impediments of his Majesty that would be and now wee 'll touch upon the Shifts and Tricks his Highness us'd to Remove them Cromwell having squander'd away his Mony and taking occasion from the Salisbury Rising in 1654. to Squeeze the Cavaliers for more Kills two Birds with one Stone by Commissioning some of those Persons which he most apprehended in his Counsell to do his work whom under the Name of Major-Generals and with a Power at Liberty doubtless foreseeing how they would abuse it he places as Governours over the Several Counties These he employes to Levy his barbarous Decimation which when they had done and by a Thousand Insolencies enraged the People he layes them aside being now become of the most Popular of the Party the most Abominated Creatures of the Nation Touching the Royallists no good for him was to be hop'd for There but by Gaols Exile Selling them for Slaves Famishings or Murther all which was abundantly provided for by Sequestrations Pretended Plots High-Courts of Iustice Spyes Decoyes c. Nay for the very Dispatch sake when they should resolve upon the Massacre which beyond doubt they meant us No Cavalier must be allow'd so much as the least piece of Defensive Arms by an Order of Nov. 24. 1655. No Person suffer'd to keep in his house as Chaplain or School-Master any Sequestred or Ejected Minister Fellow of a Colledge or School-Master nor suffer his Children to be taught by such Nor any Person of that Quality must be permitted to Teach a Schoole either Publique or Private Nor Preach but in his Own Family nor Administer the Sacraments nor Marry nor use the Common-Prayer book
Impression of That Anguish went with him to his Grave as may be fairly Gather'd from the wild disproportion of his following Actions which well consider'd will appear rather the Products of Revenge Rage and Despair then the form'd Regular Polittiques of his wonted Reason Yet that he might not seem to abandon the persuit and utterly despond some Five weeks after the breaking up of the late Assembly The Maior of London and his Brethren were summon'd to White Hall and there March 2. 1658. the Citts are told a Formal Tale of the King of Scots 8000 Men in Readiness and 22 Vessels to Transport them A General Plot The City to be fired and twenty Terrible Things to start and Settle a New Militia which in some Six weeks time was perfected And Now from all Parts are to be procur'd Addresses which are no other then Leagues Offensive and Defensive Betwixt the Faction and the Usurper Sweet London leads the way Then Michell's Ashfields Cobbetts Regiments The Officers of the English Army and the Commission-Officers in Flanders All these in March In April the Officers of Biscoes Regiment and the Commission Officers of the Militia in Suffolk Leicester Sussex and my Country-men of Norwich After These follow the Souldiery of South-Wales and Daniels Regiment The Well-affected of Notingham c. These Numerous and Pretending Applications were but False Glosses upon his Power and Cromwell was too wise to think them Other Gain'd by Contrivement Force or at least Importunity Half a Score pitiful wretches call themseâ—ves the People of such or such a County and here 's the Totall of the Reckoning 'T is Rumour'd that his Daughter Cleypoole in the Agonies of her Death-Sickness rang him a Peal that troubled him Whether 't were so or no 't is past Dispute his Grand Distress was for the Losse of That which while he hop'd to gain made the most horrid of his helpful Sins seem Solaces and Pleasures While by the Artifice of These Addresses his broken Interest is pieced as Fair as well it may his Care is Divided between the engaging of One Party and the Destroying of Another And under the Masque of a pressing and Pious Necessity he breaks out into such Enormous Cruelties such Wanton and Conceited Butcheries that had not his Brain been Crackt as well as his Conscience Sear'd he would not have gone so Phantastical a way to the Devill Some of the Martyrs Hearts were quick and Springing in the Fire as I had it from several Ey-Witnesses Ashton did but desire to be Beheaded and it was seemingly Granted but the Order kept till 't was too late and Then tendered with a Ieere London was made the Altar for These Burnt-Offrings God grant That City be not at last purg'd by Fire I mean before the General Conflagration for Those Polluting Flames The Crime was Loyalty and made out against them more by the doubling Artifice of Mercenary Tongues than any Pregnancy of Proofes What could This Furious and Inhumane Rigour avail That miserable Politician further then as it Gratifi'd his Malice and Revenge for his Lost Hopes and Fortunes Without a Parliament or somewhat like one he Perishes for want of Mony and an Assembly to his mind throughout he utterly despayres of so that no Remedy remains but by extremities of Violence and Bloud to do his Business And to That end he faintly labours the new Modelling of his Army a way which he had found by Long Experience made Enemies as well as Friends Those certain and Implacable These prone to change their Interest and without Mony True to None In fine his Fate was Irresistible and his Tormented Soul Inconsolable He Sinks Sickens and Dies Upon the Day of his grand Anniversary for Dunbar and Worcester Sept. 3. The Night before his Death arose a Tempest that seem'd to signifie the Prince of the Ayre had some great work in hand and 't is Remarquable that during his Usurpation scarce any Eminent Action pass'd without a furious Storm I have drawn This Chapter to a length beyond my intention and should be too too Tedious to run through all his Wiles which were No other then an Habituall Craft diffused throughout the entire Course of his Tyranny But certain General rules he impos'd upon himself which must not be omitted One was to Buy Intelligence at any Rate by That means making every Plot bear it 's own Charges 2. Never to Engage Two Parties at once but to Flatter and Formalize with the One till he Ruin'd the Other Which was the Reason that he durst never make the Presbyterians Desperate for fear of Necessitating them to side with the King 3. To extirpate the Royallists by all possible means as Poverty Bondage Executions Transplantations and a Device he had to dispose of several Levies out of That Party Some to serve the Spaniard Others the French that they might be sure to meet in Opposition and cut One the Others Throats 4. He ever made his Army his own Particular Care 5. To keep the Nation in a perpetual Hatred and Iealousie of the Kings Party which he promoted either by forging of Plots or Procuring Them So much for Olivers Temper Streights and Politiques CAP. VII A short Account from the Death of the Tyrant Oliver to the Return of Charles the Second whom God Preserve from his Fathers Enemies THe Heart of the Cause was broken long since and now the Soul of it is gone though the Protectorate be formally devolv'd to Richard as the Declar'd Successour to his Father Whether Declar'd or not was I remember at That time a Question But whether Thus or So it Matters not Oliver's Dead his Son Proclaym'd and at night Bon-fires with all the Clamor Bustle and Confusion that commonly attends â—hose Vulgar Jollities The Souldiours took the Alarm and in my hearing threatned divers for daring to express their Joy so unseasonably but they came off with telling them that they were glad they had got a New Protector not that they had lost the Old In Truth the New Protector was look'd upon as a Person more Inclinable to do Good than Capable to do Mischief and the Exchange welcome to all that Lov'd his Majesty By the Court-Interest as they call'd it Addresses thick and threefold were brought in to Condole and Gratulate but Those Complements had no Sap in them The Dutch the Swede and the French sent their Embassadours on the same Errand And now the Funerals come on A Solemn and Expensive Pageantry yet in my Conscience the Chief-Mourners were his Highness Drapers These Ceremonies over to keep the Wheel in Motion a Supply was Resolv'd upon for the King of Swede and little further of Moment before Ian. 27. When in the Language of the Time met Richards Parliament The First and Last of his Reign It cost These people some time to agree the Powers of the Chief-Magistrate and the New Peerage which came to this result that Richard should be Recognized but
People Place Custome or Government they were to work upon Concerning the People first Populi ferè omnes ad Aquilonem positi Libertatem quandam spirant 'T is Rodin's observation that your Northern Nations are Generally keen Assertours of Freedom which for their Parts the English made too true How could it be Expected then that a People which Oppos'd their Lawfull Prince for the fear of Slavery should ever finally Submit to a Rebellious Usurper under the Actual and Shameful Extremity of it This Reluctancy of Humour in the Generality joyn'd with the Particular Vigilance Loyalty and Enterprisings of the Royallists render'd those Courses Necessary at present to the Usurper which must certainly sink him in the End Nor was it more against the Genius of the People than against the Interest and Reason of the Place The Place we are to consider as an Island no Forreign Danger then in view to Palliate the Oppression of an Army nor any Subject whereupon to turn the Influence of it No Stranger in the Case concern'd only at Variance with our selves we breed and nourish in our proper bowels the Evill that Devours or at the best Consumes us The Army fear'd the Plots but 't was the Nation felt them and the Result of all was only a Dispute betwixt the Civill and the Military Power Law and Necessity so that Effectually the two Parties of this Division thus Enterwatching and Counter-Plotting one another we were rather in a State of Warr than a Posture of Security the People being at this Election either to Resist or Starve and the Army as much oblig'd to make good their undertaking or fall to nothing What could be Rationally the Issue of these Provocations and Animosities but either the Destruction of the Army by the People or of the People by the Army in Order to a General Quiet Neither of them being safe but by the Ruine and Subjection of the Other If the People refuse to Pay they are Presently Dis-affected if the Souldiery be their own Carvers they are look'd upon as Tyrannical and Insolent and here 's Matter furnish'd for a Civill Warr. Now That which makes the Case Worse is as I said that being Islanders and wanting the Colour of Arming against Dangerous Neighbours we are forc'd to spend That humour in Mutiny among our selves which might Otherwise be Diverted by and Employ'd upon a Publique Quarrell A Digression to the State of FRANCE Upon the Continent 't is Otherwise as in France for the Purpose where though the King Enterteins a Standing Army of 12000. and about Fourscore Regiments more in Flanders Italy Catalogne and Luxemburgh besides Strangers There 's yet the Countenance of an Interest and a Prudentiall Ground for 't to Ballance the Power or at least Check the Progress of his Ambitious Neighbour Spain For sayes the Duke of Rohan in his Interest of France Il faut opposer La Force à la Force Car ni les persuasions ni la Iustice des armes ne fera la loi à celui qui sera armè tellement que la France doit se retrencher de toute autre despense moins utile estre tousiours puissamment armè Force must meet Force for 't is the Sword that gives the Law to Equity and Reason wherefore let France rather be sparing in any other way then in the Constant Entertainment of a Puissant Army It may be Argu'd too that the Exercise of Armes is the Profession of the French Nobility and in Effect 't is only Warr abroad keeps them in Peace at home Yet even in France it self where the Necessity of a Standing-Army is bolster'd up with so many fair Appearances the Effects are Dismall how plausible soever the first Occasion seem'd Where it began or what it was not a rush matter but that by Gradual encrochments from small and Temporary Pretenses 't is now grown to a Constant and unlimited Excess he that knows any thing of France cannot be Ignorant They that fetch it from Guntran King of Orleans 587. look too far back methinks and entitle the Tyranny to too fair a President His Case being This. Guntran was the Surviver of Four Brothers Sons of Clotaire the First the other Three being Cherebert Chilperic and Sigibert The Eldest of These Died Childlesse and the Other Two were Murther'd by the Practises of Fredegonde first the Mistresse and afterward the Wife of Chilperic Sigibert supinely indulging himself in the height of his Conquests and Pleasures was Stabb'd in his own Palace by a Couple of Souldiours employ'd by Fredegonde who did as much at last for her Husband Chilperic having first Caused him to Murther his Son Clouis to Divorce one Wife and Strangle another The Story is Short and a little Curious Fredegonde had a Gallant called Landry de la Tour by Her Preferr'd to be Duke of France and Maire of the Palace The King comes one Morning in his Hunting-Dress into the Queens Chamber as she was busie about her Head with her Hair over her Eyes and without a word speaking tickles her on the Neck with the Twigg-end of his Riding-wand Ah Landry sayes she That 's not Cavalier like to come Behind The King was as much surpriz'd with the Discovery as Fredegonde with the Mistake and went his way with the Thought of it in his Countenance Landry is presently sent for by the Queen They discourse the Accident Debate the Consequences and in the End Complot to have Chilperic Murthered as he returns from the Chase which was Executed with much Ease and Security the King being only attended with a Single Page who Dy'd with his Master and the Murthâ—rers escap'd This Chilperic had by Fredegonde Clotaire the Second but Four Moneths old at the Death of his Father and the Regency of King and Kingdom was Committed to Guntran the young Kings Uncle by the Fathers side The Regent warn'd by the Miscarriage of his Brothers and being enform'd that the same Hand by which They fell sought His Life also Establishes a Considerable Guard Constantly to attend his Person which was both suitable to his Wisdom and Dignity as a Security against not only the stroke of Violence but the very Thought of it and a fit Circumstance of Majesty The Influence of This Foâ—ce went not far nor in Truth the Royalty of their fiâ—st Race of Kings much farther whos 's either Lâ—nity or Averserâ—sse to Business of State gave their Great Counsellours the means to Usurp and Transferr Their Authority which Confidence they abused to the Supplanting of their Masters Compleints Suits References Addresses must be made forsooth to the Majors not to the Kings They undertake the Disposition of Monies and Offices the Menage of Treaties and Alliances They Grant Revoke at Pleasure Briefly from 632. to 750. France was rather under a Majoralty then a Monarchy and Then Pope Zachary having first Absolv'd the French of their Oath of Obedience the Race of Childeric is Laid By Himself
Governs by his Laws at Home The Apprehension of Conspiracies and Plots in my opinion weighs not much or if there be any danger the failing is rather in the Constitution or Administration then in the want of Power to keep the Peopâ—e quiet Good Lawes and Good Officers will do the Business without an Army and if the Instruments be bad The Hazzard's Ten timeâ— greater with it It will be needful here for the Clearing of the Question to make a Particular Enquiry concerning Seditions and That 's the Point wee 'll handle in the Next Chapter which for Order sake we shall divide into Seaven Sections with their Subdivisions as occasion shall require CAP. IX Of Seditions in Particular and shewing in what maner they arise from These Seaven Interests The Church the Bench the Court the Camp the City the Countrey and the Body Representative IN the first Chapter of this Tract we have touch'd upon the Matter and Causes of Seditions in General We must be now a little more Particular The Scene 's Utopia and wee 'll Divide it into Seaven Interests The Church the Bench the Court the Camp the City the Countrey and the Body Representative the least considerable of which being in any great disorder hazzards the whole and That either by engaging in some Actual Violence against the Government or by some Irregularity of Proceeding that may Provoke or Cause it Of These in their Course and first of the Church Sect. 1. Seditions Arising from the CHURCH THose Troubles in the State which derive from Distempers in the Church proceed either from Faction Ignorance or Scandal The Strongest Tie upon Reasonable Nature is Conscience and the Stubbornest Consciences are Those that do they know not What they know not Why. In Truth what is Conscience without Understanding but a well-meaning Madnesse And That 's the Fairest Sense my Charity can Afford to the Blind Zeal of a Transported Multitude If Conscience bids them Kill the King Râ—b the Church and Tear up the Foundations of Both Governments They 'll do it Nay More This has been done and Providence it self Proclaim'd for the Doer of it Great Heed should then be taken what Persons are Entrusted with the Care of Souls since the Consequence of a Factious Preacher and a Mistaken Conscience proves many times the Ruine both of Prince and People Under the Note of Faction I comprize all Opinions delivered Publiquely and with Design against the Doctrine Practice or Authority of the Church Reduce it in Short to Haresie and Schismâ— The former whereof reflecting only upon Matters of Faith concerns rather Religion then Government and lyes beyond the Line of my Purpose but in This Place the Latter is the Question and briefly as we may wee 'll take a view of the Rise the Methode the Design and the Effects of it It is with Church-men as with other Mortals There are of all Sorts Good Bad and Indifferent Some we have known whom neither the Losse of Dignity Fortune Freedome no nor the Losse of Life it self could ever move from the strict Rule of Conscience Magnanimity and Duty Others we have seen to Exercise these Cruelties though Ecclesiastiques themselves upon the Nobler Sort of their own Function And some again we have Observ'd to shift with every Turn and Steer by Interest Still putting on the Livery of the Prevayling Party Squaring the Rule and Will of Heaven to tho Appetites and Passions of Humanity so that upon the whole 't is evident some Clergy-men are Quiet because they have Preferments and Others Troublesome because they want them The Principal Ingredients into Schisme are These Ambition Avarice Popularity and Envy The Scope of it is to destroy Authority and advance a Faction Now how to accomplish This is the great work for a Rent in the Church signifies nothing without a Sedition in the State and in This manner they Proceed First in a Stile of Holy Tendernesse they slily disaffect the People against the Rites of the Church as in themselves unlawful and utterly Destructive of Christian Liberty To strengthen and advance the Imposture what do they next but rip up all the Faylings and shew the Nakednesse of their Superiours still aggravating what they find and Creating Scandalous Matter where they want it When the Multitude are once mov'd in Conscience against the Impositions and in Passion against the Imposers their next attempt is upon the Authority and Then they divide into Separate Assemblies which under colour of so many Conscientious Dissenters from the Ceremonies of the Church are infallibly so many contrivers against the Peace of the Kingdom For here comes in the Civill Power to prohibit their Seditious meetings and Then the Saints they cry are Persecuted The Cause is God's and they are ty'd in Conscience to bind their Kings in Chains and through all Extremities to persue a Reformation This is the Fruit of Tolerating a Faction under a Countenance of Conscience Nor is it any wonder to see Those wretches draw their Swords against Their Sovereign in the Field whose Souls are turn'd against him in the Pulpit But 't is Objected that some Ministers do really make a Conscience of Conformity Truly the better for Them if they forbear upon That Accompt but 't is the same Thing to the Publique upon what-accompt-soever for they Prescribe what they Practise and by the President of Sticking upon a Doubt of Conscience they open a Dore to Disobedience upon any Pretence of it breaking the Bond of Unity in favour of a Particular nicety of Opinion Very Notable is The Determination of the Lord St. Albans in This Case In Points Fundamental he that is not with us is against us In Points not Fundamental he that is not against us is with us Let this suffice to shew the Political Inconvenience of Enterteining Schismatical Preachers It may be now a Question How far a Christian Magistrate may justifie the sufferance of any man to exercise the Ministery within his Dominions that 's a profess'd Enemy to Episcopacy Which I Offer with the fit Modesty of a Proposal and with Reverence to the better-enform'd But if as the Danger of such a Mixture is Evident so the Lawfulness of it shall appear doubtful their own Argument is then turn'd against Themselves and we have both Scripture and Experience on our side over and above The Three Questions wherewith King Charles the Martyr Choak'd the Presbyterian Ministers in the Isle of Wight Remain still Unresolv'd and they are These First Is there any Certain Form of Church-Government at all prescrib'd in the Word Secondly If there be any Prescript Form Whether or no may the Civil Power Change the same as they see Cause Thirdly If any Prescript Form there be and That unchangeable If it were not Episcopal what was it In Fact the Constant Exercise of Church-Prelacy is so manifest that the whole stream of Story and Tradition Runs Episcopal which to Oppose were
to the People for whose Behoofe the Law was made This is a Specious but a Poysonous Inference and rather adapted to a Mutinous Interest then to a Peaceable and candid Reason Let a Transgression be supposed are there any Laws Paenal upon the Monarch But there are none that warrant Tyranny Right but there are some yet that forbid Rebellion and without questioning the Cause that declare all Violences whatsoever upon the Person or Authority of the King to be Crimina Laesae Majestatis or Treason Are there any Laws now on the Other side that depose Kings for Male-administration If none the Law being Peremptorily against the One and only not for the Other what does it but constitute the Subject in all cases accomptable for his Resistance to the Sovereign and Leave the Supreme Magistrate in all cases to answer for his Mis-government to Almighty God But let the Controversie passe for we are not here so much to enter into the True State Matters as to deliver their Appearances And now is the time to bring the Faylings and Mis-fortunes of the Prince upon the Stage and by exposing him Naked before the Multitude to make his Person Cheap and his Government Odious to his People Which they Effect by certain Oblique Discourses from the Presse and Pulpit by Lamentable Petitions craving Deliverance from such and such Distresses of Estate or Conscience and These they Print and Publish converting their pretended supplications for Relief into bitter Remonstrances of the Cruelty and Injustice of their Rulers By These wiles are the Vulgar drawn to a dislike of Monarchy and That 's the Quëue to a discourse of the Advantages of a Popular Government the next step to the Design of introducing it There 's none of This or That they cry at Amsterdam and in short from these Grudgings of Mutiny These Grumblings against Authority they slide Insensibly into direct and open Practices against it Alas what are These Motions but the sparkling of a Popular Disposition now in the Act of Kindling which only wants a little Blowing of the Cole to Puff up all into a Flame From the Leading and Preparatory Motives to Sedition now to the more Immediate and Enflaming Causes of it which are reducible either to Religion Oppression Privileges or Poverty Subsection I. Seditions which concern Religion THose Seditions which concern Religion referr either to Doctrine or Discipline Haeresie or Schism The Former is a Strife as they say for a better or a worse a Contest betwixt the Persuasion of the People and the Religion of the Government in matter of Faith and tending either to Overthrow the One or to Establish the Other In This Case the People may be in the Right as to the Opinion but never so as to justifie the Practice for Christianity does not dissolve the Order of Society To Obey God rather then Man is Well Let us obey him then in not Resisting Those Powers to which his Ordinance hath Subjected us Touching This with the Brethren's Leave I take it to be the more Venial-Mortal Sin of the Two That is the Rebellion of Haeresie is lesse unpardonable than That of Schism in regard first that the Subject of the Difference is a matter of greater Import Secondly 't is not Impossible but the Mispersuasion may be founded upon Invincible Ignorance I do not say that I had rather be an Arrian then a Calvinist but I averr that he is the foulest Rebell that for the Slightest Cause upon the Least Provocation and against the Clearest-Light Murthers his Sovereign Those Seditions which are mov'd upon accompt of Schisme are commonly a combination of Many against One of Errour against Truth and a Design that strikes as well at the Civill Power as the Ecclesiastick This being a Subject which both in the first Section of This Chapter and Else-where is sufficiently discours'd upon we shall rather addresse our selves to the Means Peculiar to a City of Comforting and ayding these unquiet agitations as more properly the Businesse of our present Argument Great Towns have first the Advantage of great Numbers of People within a Small Compasse of Place where with much Ease and Privacy Those of the Faction may hold their full and frequent Meetings Debate Contrive nay and Execute with all Convenience For when the Plot is Laid the Maner and the Time Appointed ther 's no more trouble for the Rendezvons the Party 's Lodg'd already the Town it self being the most Commodious Quarter 'T is in respect of These favourable concurrences that men of Turbulent and Factious Spirits rather make choyce of Populous Cities to Practise in Another Hazzard may arise from the Temper of the Inhabitants as well as from the Condition of the Place and from the very Humour and application of the Women in a notion distinct from That of the Men. From the Temper of the Inhabitants first as partaking usually of the Leaven of their Correspondents whom we find very often both Famous for Trade and Notorious for Schisme But Men are Generally so good-Natur'd as to think well of any Religion they Thrive under Further their Employment being Traffique or Negotiating for Benefit and their Profession being to Buy as Cheap as they can and to Sell as Dear without any measure between the Risque or Disbursment and the Profit they are commonly better Accomptants then Casuists and will rather stretch their Religion to their Interest then shrink their Interest to their Religion They have again so superstitious a Veneration for the Iustice of Paying Mony upon the Precise Hour that they can very hardly believe any man to be of the right Religion that Breaks his Day And observe it let a Prince run himself deep in Debt to his Imperial City they shall not so much Glamour at him for an ill Pay-Master as upon a Fit of Holinesse suspect him for an Haretique or Idolater Proposing a Tumult as the ready way to Pay themselves and That I reckon as the first step into a Rebellion Now how The Women come to be concern'd That first and Then why the City-Dames more then Other It is the Policy of all Cunning Innovatours when they would put a Trick upon the world in matter of Religion which they desire may be Receiv'd with Passion recommended with Zeal and Dispersed with Diligence to begin with the stronger Sex though the Weaker Vessell that excellent Creature Woman And This Course they take out of These Considerations First as That Sex is Naturally scrupulous and Addicted to Devotion and so more susceptible of delusive Impressions that bear a face of Piety Secondly as it is too Innocent to suspect a Deceipt and too Oredulous to Examine it so is it probably not crafty enough to Discover it Thirdly Women are supposed not only to Entertein what they Like with more Earnestnesse of Affection but also to impart what they know with a Greater Freedom of Communication which proceeds from a
utter Exclusion of the Contrary by Prohibiting Private Meetings or Conventicles and by taking heed to the Presse A Watchfulnesse in These Three Points Secures the Church from Schismes and Consequently the State from Conscientious Seditions at least if I am not Mistaken in my Presumption that there is not any fourth way of Dangerous Communication Touching the Licentious abuse of the Presse and the Freedome of Riotous Assemblies the Distemper is not as yet grown Bold enough to avow Those Liberties But from the Non-Conforming Ministers we must expect hard Pleading What shall the Faithfull Guides be ejected upon the accompt of Forms or Ceremonies because they dare not do that which they Iudge to be so great a Sin against the Lord May not a Dissenting Brother be an Honest man Our Reply shall be short and Charitable If the People take them for Guides they will be the apter to follow them so that the fairer their Credit is the worse is their Argument Nor are they laid aside as if the Difference it self were so Criminal but for the evill Consequences of Reteining Them First it advances the Reputation of the Dissenting Party to have the matter Look as if either the Power or Reason were on Their side Next it Subjects the Prince to be Thought Diffident either of his Authority to Command or of the Iustice of the Thingâ— Commanded Thirdly a Dissenting Minister makes a Dissenting Congregation Fourthly it makes Conscience a Cloak for Sedition and under Colour of Dividing from the Church it Ministers Occasion for People to unite against the State Fifthly it not only leads to Novell Opinions whereof the Vulgar are both Greedy and Curious but it Possesses the Multitude with These Two Desperate and Insociable Persuasions First That the People are Iudges of the Law and Next That because God alone has Power over Their Souls the Sovereign has none over their Bodies As to the Honesty of a Dissenting Brother his Honesty is only to himself but his Dissent is to the Publique and the Better the Man is the Worse is the President Upon These hazzards depends the Royalty of That Sovereign that dispenses with the Law to Indulge This Faction and which is the great Pitty of all the better he deserves the worse they use him So that the only way for a Prince to deal Safely with These People is first to lay aside That Dangerous and Fatal Goodnesse and Steer his Resolutions by the Compass of a Severe and Inexorable Reason Not that Kings are Gods in any Respect more then in their Power and Mercy but there are certain Cases and Instances wherein That Power and Mercy may be Restreyn'd and wherein 't is possible that what is Excellent in Nature may be a slip in Government 'T is One Thing for a Party to ask Pardon for a Fault already Committed and another thing to beg a Dispensation beforehand to Commit it And there 's This Difference also in the Issue of the Grants The Prince has the Faction at His Mercy the One way and the Faction has got the Prince at Theirs the Other But to the Point Will the Monarch's Yielding to this or That Content them They 'll say 't is all they aime at and truly I 'd believe them would they but shew mee out of their whole Tribe any one Instance of This Moderation to save the Credit of my Charity Any Presbyterian Interest in Nature that is not Rays'd upon the Ruines of a Prince and Cimented with Broken Vowes and Promises If it be Thus Nothing lesse then a Miracle can secure That Monarch that makes This Faction Master of the Pulpit and This King Charls the Martyr prov'd by sad Experience For not a Soul that by the Instigation of Schismaticall Lecturers deserted the Church but became an Enemy to the State So that Effectually a Gracious Toleration in some Cases is by Some people understood no otherwise then as a Tacit Commission from the Person of the King to Levy a Warr against his Office And it is very rarely that such an Indulgence is better Employ'd In which Opinion we are not a little Confirm'd by the Reflections of That Blessed Prince above mentioned I wish says he I had not suffered My own Iudgment to have been overborne in some Things more by others Importunities then their Arguments My Confidence had lesse betrayed My self and My Kingdoms to Those advantages which some men sought for who wanted nothing but Power and Occasion to do Mischief And after the utmost Tryall of Bounty and Remisâ—nesse to That Faction These are his words to his Royall Successour I cannot yet Learn That Lesson nor I hâ—pe never will you That it is safe for a King to gratifie any Faction with the perturbation of the Laws in which is wrapt up the Publique Interest and the Good of the Community Finally Those Perfidious Creatures which at first Petition'd their Sovereign afterwards fought against Him and Imprison'd Him Refusing him in his Distresse the Comfort of his own Chaplains in Requitall for having Granted them the Liberty of their Consciences Who strook the Fatall Blow it matters not If He had not been Disarm'd he had not been Kill'd Subjects do not Hunt Kings for Sport only to Catch Them and let them go again To Conclude He was persecuted with Propositions worse then Death as by his Choyce appear'd for he Preferr'd rather to Die then Sign Them But to Signalize the Honour of his Memory and the Glory of his Martyrdome take his Last Resolution and Profession I look upon it with infinite more content and quiet of Soul to have been worsted in my Enforced contestation for and vindication of the Laws of the Land the Freedome and Honour of Parliaments the Rights of my Crown the Iust Liberty of my Subjects and the true Christian Religion in its Doctrine Government and due Encouragements then if I had with the greatest Advantages of Successe over-born them all as some men have now Evidently done whatever Designs they at first pretended From a Supposition of the first Inclination to Schism Proposing also how to strangle it in the Birth we are now to Consider it in some Degree of Growth and Progression and to enquire after the best means to prevent such Mischieves as may arise from the further Encrease and spreading of it That is the Mischieves of Conspiracy which may be Promoted either by Speech or Writing The first great Hazzard is when Popular Persons are put in Popular Employments and in Populous Places A Cunning and a Factious Minister is a Dangerous Instrument in a City and the more Dangerous if Tolerated for Then he Stirs up Tumults by Authority and who shall blame the Flock for Following the Shepheard The Liberties of Conventicles and Pamphlets are likewise of Desperate Influence upon the People but These as is already said are easily Suppress'd by the Seasonable Execution of Laws But There 's no Dallying with
him which concern his Iustice or his Honour although not the Safety of his Person you are as dangerous is Traytour to his State as he that rises in Armes against him If such as only withdraw their Allegeance from their Prince are so Criminal how much are They to blame then that where his Conscience Life and Dignity lie all at Stake abuse and mispossesse him That cry Not That way Sir for the Lords sake go This way rather and so Betray him from his Guards into an Ambush But Centaurs are scarce more Monstrous in Nature then These men are in Manners and I may seem perhaps very haâ—d driven for want of work to employ my time in the searching out of Remedies for Mischiefs so Improbable Truly His Conceipt that imputes the Omission of a Law against Patricides to a Presumption that the Crime would never be committed does not at all divert me from Believing that Prudence is to Provide for the Worst and Nothing left to Chance that may be Secur'd by Counsell Wherefore I Proceed to my Prevention Since the Only Certainty of what is Done or Said comes from the Eye or Eare and that the Sovereign cannot be every where so that he must either give Credit to Relation or know nothing of Affairs at a Distance let us Consider by what means a Prince may most probably escape the Snares of a Mis-enformer To advise upon the Choyce of the Instrument is but to say Chuse an Honest man and hee 'll not betray you And not to let any man deceive you Twice is but the After-game of Wisdome for the First Errour may be Fatall We must look out some other Course then and a Better I know none then a Strict Iustice and Severity of Reward and Punishment A False Intelligencer is as bad as a Spy Wherefore let a Prince suppresse Calumnies and encourage Accusations that he may not take his Friends for his Enemies and his Enemies for his Friends What can be a Greater Injury to the Sovereign's Honour then by a false Story to cause him Love where he should almost Hate and Hate where he should Love Punish where he should Reward and Reward where he should Punish It breaks the Heart of Loyalty This sad Mistake and strengthens the Hands of Treason Who would dare to put These Affronts upon Majesty and Innocence if upon Detection the Scandall were made as dangerous to the Reporter as the Consequence to the Sufferer And This we take for a sufficient Mean to keep Malitious Buzzes from the Eares of Princes But This is but the work halfe-done for there are certain Truths as Necessary to be Told as are These Calumnies to be Conceal'd and where the Undertaker of the Office runs a far greater Risque to serve his Prince then the Other does to Ruine him These Offices are discharg'd by Mercenary Persons for Reward and by the Worthyer Sort for Reverence-Sake and Duty So that betwixt the Fear of Punishment the Hope of Benefit and the rare Integrity of Those that stand firm without considering Either a Prince may easily secure himself of Good Advise and Right Intelligence and That at least within Himself amply suffices to his Establishment That Kings are Men who Doubts And 't is as much Their Duty to Remember it as 't is Their Subjects not to be too Prying into the Slips of Their Humanity Their Clergy are to Prescribe to their Souls Their Physicians to their Bodies and their Counsellours are to Advise in Point of Government But 't is within the Pale of every Private mans Commission to offer his Intelligence As for Example Suppose a Counsellour of State denyes the Kings Supremacy Shall it be counted Sawâ—inesse in a Particular Person to acquaint the Monarch with it Wee 'll make an end with This. That State is in an ill Condition where he that would save his Prince must ruine himself and where One Party is bolder to do the King Mischief then the Other is to do him Good It is now high time to take another Stepp and wee 'll stay but a Moment upon it Subsection II. How to frustrate a Combination of Diverse Counsellours THe Dangers of a Combination in Diverse Counsellours are in Respect of their Power and Privileges their Credit their Dependencies either by Office or Expectation Their Opportunities of Concealing or Protecting their Friends And finally in Respect of their Intelligence betwixt thâ— State and the Faction This Confederacy is so liable to be Discover'd so dangerous to be Suffer'd and so easie to be disorder'd that it is scarce worth the while to speak to so Manifest an Inconvenience In Little if they are not Removed as they are found Fâ—ulty Disgrac'd as they appear Bold or Secluded from such Consultations as properly concern the Difference in Question It will be a hard matter for a Prince to struggle with a Faction that is assisted by so many Advantages If it were nothing else but the meer point of Intelligence it were enough to Endanger the Crown to have a Faction privy to all the Counsells Resolves Deliberations and Necessities of the Monarch In the Lower Region of the Court we have supposed Three sorts of People that may Occasion Great Inconveniences to wit Insatiate Beggers Corrupt Officers and Ill Paymasters I might have added Two more that is Men of Ill Lives and of Ill Principles The First of these Five I thought to have plac'd in the Upper Division but it Commonly belongs to Both only These Beg Oftener the Other More and to speak the truth of the businesse where This Trade is in Fashion it may be observ'd that there are not above Four or Five Beggers in Chief and the Rest Beg under Them as it falls out sometime in Popular Representatives A few Get up and the Rest Truckle Where This Humour is much Indulg'd the Consequence of it is not only Faction within the Walls but a General Discontentment and Necessity throughout the Nation For when the Ordinary wayes of Profit are dispos'd of Recourse is had to Project and Invention which if not very tenderly menaged leaves the King a sad Luser at the Foot of the Accompt Beside that it Anticipates the Prince his Generosity and by Exacting rather then Obteyning takes away the Freedome of his Choyce and Bounty The way for a Prince to Help This is either to put a Stint upon the Suitour or a Restreint upon his Proper Goodnesse and even where he is Resolved to Give not to do it sodainly lest he appear to Give for the Asking without considering the Merit Let him further have a Particular Care of Persons that grow Proud upon his Favours The same weaknesse of Mind that makes them Proud will quickly make them Sâ—wcy too and the reason is they think they have got the better of him Corrupt Officers are Another Pest of a Court and Bane of a State unlesse timely look'd after and Then the Publique may be the Better for them
This Watchfulness to Prevent Mischief any hinderance to the Readinesse of the Nation to Suppresse it The Nobility and Gentry that held by Knights-Service were still to be Ready with Horse and Armes at any Summons and upon pein of Forfeiture to attend the King or his Lieutenant Generall either at Home or Abroad for Forty Dayes at their proper Charge If That were not sufficient the King had the whole Body of the Common People for his Infantry and an unquestionable Right by his Commissions of Array to put the Nation in a Posture from Eighteen to Threescore Beside his Navall Guards to cleere the Seas and watch the Coast And This without any Dispute in those blessed days who should be judg of the Danger As Nothing was here wanting to the Security of the Nation which good Lawes could Contritribute so was there as little wanting to the Felicity of the People in regard of the Constitution of the Government If it be True as Salust sayes that the Desire of Rule is the Cause of Warr Where there 's no place for such Desire there can be consequently no Cause of Quarrell At least there can be no Ambitious Cause the Canker of Great Minds and deadly Enemy of all Politique Settlements This is the Happy case betwixt the King of England and the People Ambition presses forward still and he that 's Uppermost already is above it The Object of it is Conquest not Tyranny and in a Monarch as I have said else-where rather Enlargement of Empire then of Prerogative The People on the Other side They are as much Below it For the Nobility stands betwixt Them and Home and 't is not for a Faction to take Two Stairs at a step So that Their Businesse is but Freedome from Oppression without the least Thought of Dominion Yet Differences break out and Bloudy ones which by a Grosse Mistake we are too subject to assign unto Wrong Causes If ye would know the Right Cui prodest Scelus ille fecit The Gayners by a Publique Ruine are commonly the Contrivers of it and in all Wrangles betwixt the Royall and the Popular Interest we may observe that a Third Party reaps the Fruit of Their Division and seizes the Booty The People only giving in Exchange for the Name of Liberty the Substance of it sinking a Monarchy into an Oligarchy and slipping the Nooze of One Government to be Halter'd in another Were not the Multitude directly Mad they would understand that Their Well-beeing is so Inseparable from the King 's and His from Theirs that the One cannot long survive the Ruines of the Other And that when ever They Divide the Factious part of the Nobility deceives them Both. Therefore why should They either design upon the King or suspect His designing upon Them Touching the Peerage I think we may consider them under this Note of Participation either as Petty Kings or Powerfull Subjects In the One Capacity they may seem Dangerous to the People in the Other to the King If they presume on This hand The Commons are to Assist the King If They bear hard on the Other the King is to help the Commons by virtue of which Mediating mixture of Power in the Nobility as to the People and of Subjection as to the King together with the mutuall Need and Interest of a Fair Understanding betwixt King and Commons All Parties are Secur'd to the utmost possibility of Safety and Satisfaction Yet after all This There may be Danger of an Aristocracy But concerning Government and the severall Formes of it in all their Latitudes and Limitations the Rights and Interests of Kings and the Bounds of Subjects more then enough is said already and the Ball toss'd so long till both the Gamesters and By-standers are sick of the Dispute This Constitution which we have here represented so Eminent both for Defence and Comfort was neverthelesse by a Mean Wretched Faction undermin'd and yet no Age could ever boast greater examples of Love Faith and Duty of Christian Civill or of Military Virtues then were among the Assertours of That Government But all This stresse of Armes and Arguments was not sufficient to uphold the King the Church the Law the Freedome and the Honour of the Nation Their Actings were enough to Cleere the Cause but not to carry it for they Began too Late The Storme was Gather'd and the Shipp of the Publique engag'd among a Thousand Rocks before the Mariners would believe the Danger Accomâ—ting it in Truth too Little to be Consider'd till it was too Great to be Resisted But reserving the more Particular Accompt of the Late Kings Fate for the next Chapter Let us at present look about us where we are yes and Above us too for we have cause of Fear both from Divinity and Reason In This Place now do I expect Observatours in Abundance Here a Marginall Note for Taxing the Government There a for a Scandalum Magnatum And in fine Twenty Peevish Glosses upon my plain and harmlesse Meaning But let no man clap a false Bias upon my Bowle and carry That to the Wall that was Intended to the Hedg Yet let every man take his course I shall not begg so much as a Favourable Construction but readily submit every Syllable and Action of my Life in what concerns my Duty to my Prince and Countrey to the Extremest Rigour Only a Page or Two of good Advice to my Back-friends and I Proceed Good People of what Sort or Quality soever ye are Pray'e do not spare Me if you can do me any mischief but spare your selves if you cannot You that have formerly abus'd Me to the King do so no more For when he comes to find himself Betray'd by your Mis-enformations and Distress'd for want of Those plain honest Offices which so God save me I have ever Meant and Pay'd him with the strict Faith and Reverence of a Subject Will not his Sacred Majesty abhorr you fâ—r it Or if ye are Resolved to Try the utmost force of Power and Calumny upon a Poor and Single Innocent be sure ye be no Advocates for the Kings Murtherers at the same time that ye are of Counsel against his Friends â—he People will suspect you to be of the wrong side else Again since Proofs in Matters of Fact are so Easie and in Poynts of Honour so Necessary Prove what ye say or say Nothing for wherein I am Faultlesse I am a Fool if I cannot clear my self and a Slave if I do not Consider next What if ye crush me May not the Consequence of That Injustice prove Dangerous to your Selves Beside I am not now Now to Learn what 't is to Suffer for my Duty But above all Remember There 's a God that knows your Souls and Mine And at the worst to his Infallible Decision shall I remit my Innocence Now must I arm my self against These Objections Whom does This Sawcy Fellow mean
Who meddles with him He must be Directing the Church and Modelling the State What has he to do with the Government This Sawcy Fellow means Those Worthy Persons that have endeavour'd to make him odious to the King and for no other Reason as in his Name I swear that he imagines but because he is too Honest for Their Interest If there be any such Those are the Men he Means If There be None He has Offended no body His Bolt is Shot and the Exception Vanishes But Then who meddles with Him The Right Honourable the Earl of Anglesyes Chaplain meddles with him The Bishop of Worsters Animadverter meddles with him My Lord BRADSHAW Lord Chiefâ—Iustice of Chester his most obliged most Thankful and most humble Devoted Servant meddles with him He that would have Ravish'd the Ioyners Wife neer the Blew Bore in Oxford meddles with him He that in effect Read Aretine to his School-boyes meddles with him He that Betray'd and would have Ruin'd his Master that both Taught and Fed him meddles with him He that hath written against the Government both of Church and State and commended the Putting of the Late King to Death meddles with him He that thinks himself Free to use any Posture in the Church which he may in his Chamber meddles with him He that wrote the Answer to all that L'S intends to say meddles with him And in fine EDWARD BAGSHAWE St. of Ch. Ch. meddles with him But alas These are a Pittyfull Meddler and below the Honour of a Title to my least Concern There are that do Ill Offices betwixt the Best of Princes and the most Loyall of Subjects And These men Meddle with Mee among the Rest though the unworthiest of Them Further concerning my Directing of the Church and State I have been hitherto only upon the Defensive and I hope it is as lawfull for Me to Assert the Cause as for Others to Oppose it Nor have I stickled more about the Government then belongs to a Private Person If I have discover'd Traytours 't was but my Duty and I had been a Perjur'd Villein if I had done Lesse That They are Winck'd at Protected or Brought off is none of My Fault If I have dealt in Presbyterian Prognostications and represented Dangers such as I thought them First 't was well Meant for I have kept my self within my Bounds I had no Interest in 't and I have got Nothing by it Next 't was not ill Guess'd and they that compare Times will easily Acknowledg it I am come now within a Little of my Purpose and that This formall Preamble may not raise Expectations of a larger Liberty then I think either Safe or Warrantable within These Limits I resolve Strictly to Confine my self That is within the Limits of what I ow to the Office Person and Government of his Sacred Majesty Within the Compasse of my Duty to the Establish'd Law and within the Termes of a befitting Reverence to the Actions and Authority both of the Parliament now sitting and of the Counsell He must be Deaf that does not hear almost a Generall Compleint And Blind too that does not perceive a great part of the Reason of it There is a Party that Designs it should be so wherefore let them be wary how they impute the Malice and Contrivance of a Faction to any Disorder in the Government Their way is first to Disoblige the Nation in the King's Name as far as possible for in the End they are sure that all His Enemies will be Their Friends The Subject wants so does the King They should not want that Serv'd him else There are that doe not But let That Passe Another main Prop of their Interest is that they have got the means of Upholding both in Power and Credit That Party which Oppos'd the King which in the Consequence Reproches and Sterves those that were for him While the Lay-Faction are in this maner upon Modelling the State the Ministers in good time are moving their Scruples in the Church Wherein beside the Amusement that it gives even to Those in Authority the Doubtfulnesse of the Right betwixt Them which it suggests to the People and the Reputation which it gives the Faction when they appear in the Ballance against the Law and the Government there is yet one further Mischief which transcends all These That is it Intimates and Colours to the Multitude the Right of the Last Warr and by Iustifying the Pretenses of That Rebellion subministers the Reason Allowance and Encouragement of Another Let it be observ'd If These People should Strike again to morrow upon the old Score whether they might not safely say that they have been True to their Principles for they have never as yet renounc'd them When by These Artisices herein mention'd they shall have Cast the Body of the People into a deep Disquiet Confirm'd their own Party and either by Forreign Employments or Domestique Injuries and Necessities when they shall have Dissipated Suppressed nay actually Faâ—â—ish'd and totally Extirpat'd the Try'd Servants of the King where they 'll be Next I leave the Reader to Imagine Nor will any man think Me Uncharitable that Considers but their Dayly Actings for the Project is as cleer as the Light Does not every body see what Art and Industry is employ'd to Retard the Settlement of the Kingdome and with what Vigorous Diligence they prosecute the Contrary Nor will they want any thing that is to be had either for Mony or Fair words The One Costs them Nothing and if they can do any thing by the Other they have good Security however the Interest of the Three Kingdomes standing Engag'd for the Repayment of it Marque Me I say IF they can I do not say either that they CAN or DOE To This Damn'd Cunning observe now but the Luck they have How many Persons have I my self Deliver'd up and Discover'd for Publishing This King to be a Tyrant his Father to have been a Traytour and lawfully put to Death for Defending the Covenant c. and all This since the Act of Indemnity These People had the good hap to be fetch'd off and the Discovery render'd more Dangerous then the Treason Of Late there came forth Two Libels bearing the Title of Letters of Animadversion from the same hand The One against the Bishop of Worcester the Other against Mee The Authour of These Libels has the fortune to be Chaplain to a Privy-Counsellour and The Printer has Confessed upon Eâ—amination that he deliver'd Five Hundred Copies of each to â—agshawe's own hand for that 's his Name in the Earl of Anglesyes house His Lord must be suppos'd a Stranger to These Papers for They are Treasonoâ—s and Seditious beside the Forgery in them which alone renders the Contriver fitter for a Pillory then a Pâ—lpit It is further to be Presum'd that his Lordship is not well acquainted with his Character for otherwise he would not