the House of Commons Who conceiv'd that they could not with the Safety of their Persons upon which the Safety and Peace of the whole Kingdom did then depend sit any longer Vnarmed and Vnguarded so great were their Apprehensions and just Fears of mischievous Designs to ruine and destroy them This was the Popular Colour for that Guard Plots and the Safety of the Publick Where the Plot was in Truth and where the Real Danger may be gather'd from the Practises of Those Armies whereof The Guard aforesaid was but the Rise and Foundation And That 's the point we handle next The setting of This little Force a foot was a fair Step toward the Militia One Guard begetting Another and the same Reason standing good for the Augmenting and Vpholding of Those Troops which was employ'd for the first Raising of them The Parliament was first in Danger the City Next and Then the Nation and as their Iealousies 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 tho' under evera I Formes and Tyrants Our LEGIONS of the Reformation were Rais'd by certain Rebellious Lords and Commons and Seconded by the City of London We '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 Mayor 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 Cromwell himself had like to have been out-trick'd by the Levellers about Banbury In 1653. The Army Casts off the Old Conventicle and upgoes Oliver who calls Another only to get a Tax and 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 business 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 days after up with the Rump again and then they 'r Lenthall's Army which in Octob. 1659. throws out the Rump and now they 'r 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 fail'd them they worried one another never at Peace betwixt the Strife 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 Enemies for they are clearly for his Ruling with them but not over them so that unless he can both Vphold them for his Security and Modell them for his Design he does nothing In Both He labour'd and beyond Question Dy'd in the Despair 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 we 'l read in his own words deliver'd at a Conference April 21. 1657. The present Charge says 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 Land Tax 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 Summ which may now be Raised comes short of the Present Charge to 542689 l. And although an End should be put to the Spanish War 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 until 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 Summ of 600000 l. per annum which makes up the Summ of 1900000 l. That likewise the Parliament declare how far they will carry on the Spanish War and for what
Conscience By which Argument the People Govern where there is no express 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 transgress the Rule of his Power he forfeits the Right of it and that for such a Violation he is accountable to the People for whose Behoof the Law was made This is a Specious but a Poysonous Inference and rather adapted to a Mutinous Interest than 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 accountable for his Resistance to the Sovereign and Leave the Supream Magistrate in all cases to answer for his Mis-government to Almighty God But let the Controversie pass for we are not here so much to enter into the True State of Matters as to deliver their Appearances And now is the time to bring the Faylings and Misfortunes 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 Press 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 Queue 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 Practises 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 than 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 less 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 Mis-persuasion may be founded upon Invincible Ignorance I do not say that I had rather be an Arrian than 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 account of Schism are commonly a combination of Many against One of Errour against Truth and a Design that strikes as well at the Civil 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 address our selves to the Means Peculiar to a City of comforting and aiding these unquiet agitations as more properly the Business of our present Argument Great Towns have first the Advantage of Great Numbers of People within a Small Compass 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 Manner and the Time Appointed there 's no more trouble for the Rendezvous the Partie '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 choice of Populous Cities to Practise in Another Hazard 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 Schism But Men are Generally so good-Natur'd as to think well of any Religion they Thrive under Further their Employment being Traffick 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 Accountants than Casuists and will rather stretch their Religion to their Interest than 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 Clamour at him for an ill Pay-Master as upon a Fit of Holiness suspect him for an Heretick 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 Deligence to begin with the stronger Sex though the Weaker Vessel that excellent Creature Woman And This Course they take out of These Considerations First as That Sex is Naturally scrupulous and Addicted to
must have it in his Power to Oppress his People or the People have it in theirs to Destroy their Soveraign and betwixt the Ills of Tyranny 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 less 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 Less 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 Goodness 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 'l 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 Personall Weakness or Indignity in himself Nothing makes a Monarch Cheaper in the Eyes of his People than 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 Affairs of Royalty descends to the most Private and Particular Actions of a Princes Life It enters into his Cabinet-Counsells and Resolves his Publick Acts of State his very Forms of Language and Behaviour his Exercises and Familiar Entertainments In fine It is scarce less Dangerous for a Soveraign to separate the Prince from the Person even in his dayly Practises 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 Soveraign may in many Cases Familiarize with his Subjects and by so doing win the Reputation of a Wise and Gracious Prince Provided that the sweetness 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 Clear and Open Proof a Speedy Execution of Laws to the Vtmost Rigour I say upon a Clear 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 Vnite and Boldness to Attempt for it looks as if they that sit at the Helm were either more sensible of the Danger or less 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 Quarrel to shew that neither Confidence should Protect them nor their Shifts and Politicks avail them But above All let not their Money save Them for That 't no other then Setting of a Price upon the Head of the Soveraign Another Expedient to Stop a spreading Mischief is for a Prince to keep a watchful Eye over Great Assemblies which are either Irregular and Lawless or Regular and Constant or Arbitrary and Occasional Concerning the First It is seldom seen where the Manner of a Meeting is Tumultuary that the Business of it is not so too and where Many Concur in One unlawful Act 't is no hard matter to perswade 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 Tamely and strictly to Prohibit them If That does no Good He has no more to do 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 concerns 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 Choose Officers when Those Officers meet to Advise upon Business '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 hazard of Errours in Matters of Law and Religion and of the Multitude being ever in readiness and humour to Entertain them As to Meetings Arbitrary and Occasional 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 pass from Generals to Particulars beginning with the CHURCH Sect. I. By what Means Heresies and Schisms may be kept out of the CHURCH Their Encrease hinder'd and the Seditious Consequences of Them Prevented With the Remedies of Other Mischiefs arising from Disorders in the CHURCH SInce so it is that Divisions in the Church have no further Interest in This place than as they Lead to Seditions in the State the shortest Cutt I know will be to Reduce all of that Tendency to Sir Francis Bacon's Notable Comprizal of them under Two Properties If a New Sect have not Two Properties fear it not for says He it will not spread The one is the Supplanting or the Opposing of Authority established For Nothing is more Popular than That The Other is the giving Licence to Pleasures and a Voluptuous Life For as for Speculative Heresies such as were in Ancient Times the Arrians
Lord Balmerino a Pardon'd Traytor and the Son of One. His Father had been a Favourite 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 Drawn Hang'd 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 Vsurpations 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 Supream Authority Trampled upon Acts of Parliament pressing their Covenant upon the Privy-Council They gave the last Appeal to 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 within 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 the Incroachments 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 Insolencies against the Government committed and authorized 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 Ianuary 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 Resolved 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 justified by an ensuing Vote and his Majesty proclaiming him Traytor for it was Voted a Breach of Priviledge In May they pretended Governour of Hull sends out Warrants to raise the Trained Bands and the King then at York forbids them moving the County for a Regiment of the Trained Foot and a Troop of Horse for the Guard of his Royal Person Whereupon it was Voted That the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make a War against his Parliament and that whosoever shall assist him were Traytors They proceeded then to corrupt and displace divers of his Servants forbidding others to go to him They stop and seise 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 Soveraign Power resides in Both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative Voice The levying of War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with his Presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against his Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying War 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 Power by an absurd illegal and impious severing of the King's Person from his Office their next work is to put Those Powers in execution and to subject the Sacred Authority of a lawful Monarch to the Ridiculous and Monstrous Pageantry of a Headless Parliament And That 's the Business of the 19 Propositions demanding That the great Affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by Consent and Approbation of Parliament all the great Affairs of State Privy-Council Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by Teem that the Goverment Education and Marriage of the King's 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 Laws 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 Councel and that no Act of State may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority without Them Upon these Tearms they insisted and Rais'd a War 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 use to compass it The
not only the Stroke of Violence but the very Thought of it and a fit Circumstance of Majesty The Influence of This Force went not far nor in Truth the Royalty of their first Race of Kings much farther whos 's either Lenity or Aversness to Business of State gave their Great Counsellours the means to Vsurp and Transferr Their Authority which Confidence they abused to the Supplanting of their Masters Complaints 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 Chilperic is Laid By Himself 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 Former 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 compleat '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 Blood 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 claiming Exemption from the burthen of it He that would see the Glory of the One Part and the Slavery of the Other needs only read L'EST AT de la FRANCE of 1661. Treating of the Officers of the Crown Honours Governments Taxes Gabelles c. He shall there find the Venality of Officers and Their Rates the Privileges of the Nobility and Their Encrochments 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 Partiallity of their Supereminent Parliament of Paris The Book I mention is of undeniable Authority wherein Account is given of at the least Eight Millions English arising from Three Taxes only and for the sole behoof and Entertainment of the Souldery their Tailles Taillon and Subsistance Beside their Aides an Imposition upon all sorts of Merchandise Salt Excepted which must needs by a Vast Income and their Gabelle 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 maintains the Army Take notice that this Reflection was Calculated for the State of France in 1661. 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 War they cannot Live if not Abroad they are sure to have it 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 Money to Raise Guards and Another thing to Levy Guards to Raise Money 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 Army 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 Vsurper that was driven to uphold himself upon the daily Consumption of the Nation and a Body that becomes every day Weaker than 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 We 'l now consider what Welcome it was like to find upon the Point of Experience or Custom Alteration of Customs is a work of Hazzard even in Bad Customs 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 Peril to the Vndertaker But I look upon Oliver's Case as I do upon a Proposition of such or such a Mate at Chesse where there are severral ways to come within One on 't and None to Hit it The Devil and Fortune had a mind to Puzzle him He Prefers his Pawns Transposes Shifts his Officers but all will not do He still wants either Men or Money 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 Possessors of the English Crown would never venture upon No nor the Vsurpers 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 Arms every man of Estate should find and a Mulct upon such as did Detractare Militiae Edmond Ironside after his Duel 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 maintain 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 Vsurpers of the Senior Right of their Elder Brother Robert set up his Rest upon the same Terms And so did Henry the II after a long Contest with King Stephen and notwithstanding the unruliness of most of his Sons 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 and 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 Topsie-turvy and Brouillery which Henry the VIII
say Divert though to forbear helping the Right or not to hinder the Wrong because of such or such an Interest is but a Negative Oppression Those that are mov'd by Passions from their Duties are not less Culpable than the Rest. For a Good Patriot fears Nothing but to be Dishonest Hates Nothing but Iniquity and knows no other Friend but Iustice. Is any Thing propos'd which to my Reason appears of Dangerous Consequence Vnlawful to my Conscience Dishonourable to my Prince or Country Do I Discharge my Soul to God and to the World in not opposing it because forfooth 't is my Lords Interest or Project Where 't is my Office to withstand a Publick Injury 't is my Act if I suffer it Nor will it serve the turn to say Alas I 'm but one Man what should I struggle for A Noble Truth and Equity though single ought to be maintain'd against the World But very rarely is That the Case for those Particulars that under Colour of this Singleness relinquish and withdraw would in Conjunction cast the Ballance The Question is but This Whether shall I rather venture the Loss of an Office or the Loss of my Country Whether shall I rather disoblige a Powerful Subject or betray my Lawful Prince Whether in fine shall I rather choose Modestly to Oppose a Faction or Tamely to desert my Conscience Some we find Prepossest with Personal Animosities and these Particular Piques are many times the Bane of Publick Designs They do not so much heed the Matter as the Man that Promotes it They are Resolv'd to like Nothing from That Hand and while they are Cavelling about Niceties and Nothings the adverse Party runs away with the Sum of the Contest Another Infelicity is where Elections are Carried by Recommendation Fortune or Affection without any Regard to the Abilities of Persons These are a Dangerous Party and a fit Subject to work upon for being more addicted to follow the Appearances then Capable of Comprehending the Reasons of Things They are not only Liable to fall into Mistakes but Obstinate Maintainers of Them and in all Cases Determinable by Plurality of Voices the Greater Number of Fools weighes down the more Prudentiall Counsels of Fewer wise Men Nay which is most Ridiculous and Miserable but that in Popular Suffrages it must be so His Vote many Times Casts a Kingdom that has not Brain enough to Rule his Private Family Deciding the Question without understanding the Debate We have Prosecuted This Theme of Miscariages far enough From the Discovery our next advance is to the Remedies of them The harder undertaking for Faults are more easily found then mended CAP. X. How to prevent the Beginnings and hinder the Growth of Seditions in General together with Certain Particular Remedies apply'd to the Distempers of Those Seven Interests mentioned in the foregoing Chapter THe Two main Pillars that support Majesty are Love and Reverence To which are oppos'd as the Foundation of a Prince his Ruin Contempt and Hatred What are Disloyal Actions but the Issue of Disloyal Thoughts Or what are General Tumults but the Rationall Effects of General Discontents The Violent part being no other then the Manifestation of a Treason already Form'd and Perfected in the Affections So that to set the Heart Right is the Prime Duty of a Good Subject and Then to observe the Law for Love of the Authority Kings are first Render'd Odious or Despis'd and in Persuance of Those Passions they come at last to be Dethron'd or Murther'd That is to be Dethron'd or Murther'd Actually for even the first Malitious Motion was Murther in the Heart and betwixt God and our own Souls every Seditious Thought is a Rebellion Although no Prince can be Mighty without the Love of his People or Secure under their Hatred the One being Necessary to his Greatness and the Other Sufficient to his Vndoing yet must we not suppose the Subjects Love more Needfull to their Prince then His to Them since upon His Protection depends Their Welfare no less then upon Their Support His Power Because the Hazard of disuniting is mutuall it must not be suppos'd that it is therefore equal nor that the Crime is so where Tumult and Oppression are the Question They are Both ill but with exceeding odds of worse betwixt them The One does but affront the Mode of Government the Other strikes at Government it self the very Ends and Reason of it Peace Order and Society A Prince without the Hearts of his Subjects is in a bad Condition but he that falls from Hatred to Contempt his Case is Desperate For when they neither Love his Person nor Fear his Power They are both Provok'd to Contrive mischief and Embolden'd to Execute it These are the Generall and Enflaming Grounds of Seditions which may be easily prevented and Cut off in their next Immediate Causes The Difficulty is for a Prince to be Popular without making himself Cheap to Gratifie his People without Derogating from his Authority and so to Comply with the Interest of his Subjects as not to be wanting to the Necessities of his Crown In the Due Temperation of which Mixture Consists in a Great measure the skill of Governing and thereupon depends the Peace and Safety of the Government In all well-ordered Monarchies there are certain Metes and Boundaries that Part the Rights of King and People and These are either Laws or Customs providing for the Common Good and Safety both of the Subject in his Obedience and of the Soveraign in his Authority Let a Prince therefore stick to his Antient-Laws and he may be sure his People will stick to him and more he needs not ask being by Those Laws armed with Power sufficient to the Intent of Government or at the worst if any Defect there be the Fault is imputed to the Constitution and not to the Person There may indeed occur such Cases and Emergencies of Imminent and Publick Danger as being un-foreseen by the Wisdom of former Times are left without a Rule Of These beyond Dispute The only Supream Governour is the only Supream Iudge and under so strict a Necessity he not only may but ought to dispense with Common Formalities in Order both to the Discharge of his Duty and the Welfare of his People His Oath of Protection Implying him Vested with a Power of Protecting and his Conscience as a Governour obliging him to be careful of his Charge The Objection is Frivolous that This Supposition opens a door 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 Hazard under all Governments and it is inevitable that either the King
as we here Imagine the Two main Mischiefs 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 Vprightly but the Grand Failing was in the Election The Latter may be Regulated by such a Clearness of Rule and Method together with such a Strictness in the Observation of That Rule that both Every man may know his Duty and no man dare to Transgress it But Concerning the Subject Matter now of their Consultations There lies the Peril when they come to reach at Affairs Forreign to their Cognisance The Hazard is This step by step They Eneroach upon the Soveraign Claiming a Right to One Encroachment from the President of another So that Meeting with an unwary Prince they Steal away his Prerogative by Inches and when perchance His Successor comes to Resume his Right That Pilfery is call'd the Liberty of the Subject and There 's a Quarrel 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 choose the Hazard of a Tyranny than 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 Soveraign they catch their Princes commonly as they do their Horses with a Sieve and a Bridle a Subsidy and a Perpetual Parliament If They 'll take the Bit they shall have Oats But These are the Dictates of Ignorance and Malice for such is the Mutual Tye 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 Orb is Clearly and Particularly to State Those Reserves of the Prerogative with which they are not to Meddle And likewise to set forth the Metes and Bounds of their own Priviledges which They themselves are not to Transgress FINIS The Matter oâ— Sedition The Causes of it The Remedy Contempt more fatal to Kings than hatred Poverty breeds Sediâ—on A numerous Nobility causeth poverty Fears and Jealousies The dangers of Libels Sir F. B. The Rise of the late War The first Tumult against the Service-book The Covenanters Usurp the Supream Authority The Institution of the Scottish Covenant The promoters of it Hist. Indep Appendix pag. 14. The Covenant a Rebellious Vow A Plea for Treason The Usurpations of the Covenanters A Pacification with the Scots Their Infidelity They enter England The influence of the Scotish Army and the City-tumults upon the Long Parliament The two Houses usurp the Militia The Rebellion begins at Hull The Kings defence of himself Voted a War against his Parliament Teasonous Prositions of the two Houses Deposing Propositions of Iune 2. Che Cause of the War was Ambition The Rabble were the Pillars of the Cause Religion the pretence Their Zeal agaidst Popery The Method of the Reformation Rebellion divides God and the King Scandal Emproved and Invented The late King was betray'd by presbyterians in his Counsel A Dear peace the cause of a long War Tria priciipia The Method of Treason Rebellion begins in Confusion and ends in Order The English follow the Scottish pattern The prologue to the late War Loyalty persecuted Rebellion rewarded The King goes for Scotland His Welcome at his Return The King Affronted by Tumults first And Then for complaining of them The Presbyterians ruin'd by their own Arguments England a Free-State Quarrels with the Dutch The Long Parliament dissolved Barebones Parliament Their Acts. Their Zeal Their Dissolution The corruption of a Conventicle is the General of a Protector Cromwell Installed and Sworn Protector A Councell of one and Twenty Cromwells Masteries The Foundation of Cromwels Greatness Cromwels Character Cromwell Jelous of his Counsell And of his Army Oliver erects Major-Generals and then fools them The Persecution of the Cavaliers Cromwels Test of the House The Recognition Cromwels design upon St. Domingo Disastrous Blake makes amends at Tunis His Success against the Plate-Fleet near the Bay of Cadiz Addresses Oliver's Kindred stood his Friends The Petition and Advice to Declare his Successor Oliver's Other House privy-Council Revenue Cavaliers incapable of Office Cromwell Installed Protector Olivers Other House Enraged the Commons Thenew Peers The Commons pick a Quarrell with the Other House Olivers heart-breaking cross He Fools the City of London Addresses Barbarous Cruelties Cromwells Death Olivers Maximet Richard Recognized upon condition Each of the Three Parties Enemy to the Other Two The Army Ruffles the House The House Opposes the Army Richard dissolves his Parliament And is laid aside himself The Army acknowledge their backslidings And invite the old Parliament to sit again The Rump The Armies Petition The Faction flies high The Rump and the Army Clash The Rump thrown out The Army settles a Committee of Safety General M. Secures Scotland Hewsons Insolence toward the City Hazelrigg seizes Portsmouth The Rump sits again Lambert and his Party submit The City refuse to Levy Monies The Rump offended with the City The Secluded Members re-admitted Cromwel's Rise to the Soveraignty What hindred his Establishment He wâ—â—l Generally Hated The war with Spain was an Oversight A Standing Army dangerous The Rise of Cromwels Standing Army Exact Collect. Pag. 44. Ibid. The Consequences of the House of Commons Guard The Effects of a Standing Army Note Exit The Rump All Factious unite against the King They divide And Subdivide The Effects of a Military Government The English Impatient of Slavery This was calculated for 1662. It seems to be the Interest of France to maintain a Standing Army A Guard both Sutable and necessary about the Person of a King The Maries of France abus'd the Confidence of their Masters Pepin the Son of a Powerfull Subject deposed his Prince and sets up Himself The State of France The effects of a Standing Army in France A Standing Army more hazardous in England than in France Alterations of Customs dangerous Our Saxon Kings kept no Standing Army Nor Edmond Ironside Nor William the Conquerour Nor William Rufus Nor Hen. 3. Edw. 1. Edw. nor Ric. 2. Nor the Henries 4 5 6 7. Nor Hen. 8. Edw. 6. Queen Mary nor Q. Eliz. Nor K. James nor Charles the MARTYR Expedients to prevent or disappoint Dangers A Standing Army destructive to the Government
An Army without Pay is the most Dangerous Enemy Money is the Interest of the World What 's the Benefit of a Standing Army The mischief and danger of it A Royal Guard necessary and sufficient With the timely execution of good Laws Conscience the strongest Tye. The Rise of Schism The method of it The motion of Schism into Sedition The Design And Effect of it Note Qu. May an enemy to Bishops exercise the Ministry Three Questions propoundded by King Charles the Martyr concerning Church Government The derivation of Episcopal Government Christ's Mandate to the Apostles Episcopacy unalterable Corruptio Optimi Pessima The method of Schism A Scandalous Clergy makes a Seditious Layety Slander is the Sin and Practice of the Devil Shun Appearances of Scandal Ignorance a Species of Scandal Bishops blamed by the more blameable Fears and Jealousies Bishops charged with Pride by the prouder Brethren Conscience hnd Law govern the World Occasions of Sedition Seditious Lawyers and Schismatical Divines are the most abominable Seducers Plotters of Sedition Are of three Sorts Usurpers Monarchomachists Jesuited Puritans Time is the best Tryal of Fidelity The Knowledge of Persons is more then the Understanding of Matters The Noblest Natures most easily Deceived Abuses from Great Persons hardly Rectify'd What he must do that undertakes it The Art of Flattery Conscientious Sedition An Ambitious Person The Test of an Honest Favourite An ill sign Another as bad Note Mark again The Advantages of a Confederacy in Councell Their Method Rather to Countenance a Sedition then Head it How to know the Faction By their Haunts By their Cabales By their Debates By their Domesticks By their Favourites The Composition of a fit Instrument for a Corrupt States-man By their Conversation and Behaviour An honester sort of Ill Subjects A Caveat to Courtiers The Politicks of the Vulgar The Effects of Corruption in a Court. Court-Beggers Non-payment of Debts The Interests of the Souldiery An Ambitious Commander does better Abroad then at-Home A Holy War is a Contradiction Hazard not a Rebellion in one Place for fear of a Sedition in another The Constitution of a Guard-Royall Court and City seldom agree The Reason of it The Power of a City The Manner of Preparing the People for Sedition A Seditious Principle The King only Accountable to God and the People to the King Cursed be the Sons of Cham. Religious Sedition either referring to Heresie or Schism Rebellion upon a point of Heresie more Pardonable then That from Schism Seditions arising from Schism The Means of provoking Sedition The Advantages of Great Towns for Seditions Cities are inclinable to Seditions from the Temper of the Inhabitants Religions Innovatours begin with Women Four Reasons why A Zealous Sister And her Confessour A Shee-Proselyte Oppression causes Sedition A Presbyterian Trick The Politick Hypocrite Loyalty is Indispensable Citizens are tender of their Priviledges Principally in point of Trade Their Immunities are Precarious Neither Prince nor People can be secure but by Agreement Poverty an Irresistible Incentive to Sedition The most dangerous Poverty Corruption the Cause of Scarcity Private Hoardsbreed Publick Penury The Composition of wicked Ministers of State The Misery of them If either they look back Forward Round about Above them Below or within them The Sollicitous estate of the Guilty Taxes may cause or occasion a Scarcity divers ways Subjects are to Obey without Disputing Leave no Mark standing to remember a Discourtesie by Josh. 4.6 Shifting passes for Wisdom Excessive Building Knavery of Tradesmen The Country is sure to be undone by a War The Fruits of it A Discontented Nobleman Ambition Pride Revenge The Rich Churle The Contentious Free-born Subject The Dangerous mixture of a Representative The Designing Party Their Industry and Combination The Matter they work upon Their manner of Proceeding The Permitters 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 Instruments for Knaves Love and Reverence are the Pillars of Majesty The Power of a Prince depends upon the Love of his People The Grounds of Sedition Let a Prince Stick to his Laws and his People will stick to him The Oath of Protecting implies a Power of Protecting Where a King has it not in his Power to Oppress his People They have it in Theirs to destroy their King A Mixture of Indulgence and Severity Obliges the Loyal and Aws the Refractary The Influence of Prudence and Courage A Prince that bears Affronts and Familiarities from his Subjects Lessens himself How to hinder the Spreading of a Seditious Humour Let a Prince keep an Eye over Great Assemblies Let him be Quick and Watchful The most dangerous of all Seets A sure way to prevent Schism Have a Care The Presbyterians Set-form And Method Their Modesty The means of Preventing Schism Object Petition for Peace pag. 4 5. Answ. The Hazards of Toleration The Foundation of Presbytery 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 239. Let Pagans blush at These Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 263. The Growth of Schism A Noble Resolve Let the Prince Reform betime And Impartially Ambition is the Cause no matter what 's the Cry Corrupt Divines and Lawyers are in the forlorn 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 Judge is a Dangerous Minister And so is a Timorous A hard matter to make a good Choice A Rule to Choose by Hae nuga Seria ducunt 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 Strain A Ceremony may be as well impos'd as a Tax Ambition dangerous in a Favourite A Caution Ambition does better in a Souldier then in a Counsellour It is the Interest of a Prince to dispose of Offices by Particular Direction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 240. How to crush an Insolent Favourite The Danger of a Favourite that upholds Faction And manage of his Design Sir F. Bacon How to disappoint an Ambitious Design Favourites necessary to the Prince And desirable to the People Concerning the Choice of Servants Let them be Honest and Fit Of approved Loyalty to the Father Nor upon Recommendation Publick Natures for Publick 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 press the Soveraign The Danger of Over-greatness as to the People A Proud man in Power Easily crush'd A Covetous Great man The Mischief of False Intelligence Good Advice to a Counsellor Prudence provides for the worst Reward and Punishment keep People in Order Honest Truths are Dangerous A Case put The Lower Region of the Court. Four or Five Beggars in Chief Corrupt Officers a General Pest. An Excellent way of Raising Moneys Ill-pay the reason of Ill-payment Want of Money makes People Religious The Ill-principled Courtier Dangers from the Camp How Mutinies may be caused Good Pay will bear good Discipline Modelling and Disbanding are dangerous How to New model an Army How to Disband The Causes of Revolts A good Choice is the best Security against a Revolt The Danger of an Ill-order'd City Pretext of Religion is a dangerous and wicked Quarrel Is there a God Or is there None All Seditions proceed from Misgovernment Begin with the Clergy to prevent Schism Let the Magistracy be well-affected Oppression procur'd by Ill-Instruments Though the Levy be Extraordinary let the Way be Ordinary Priviledges are Sacred Poverty is a terrible Enemy The Prince not to forsake his Metropolis Let the Choice be Legal and Prudent Better the Soveraign Reform than the Councel The Effects of a good Choice and of a bad The Mischieves of Partiality Better a Tyranny than an Anarchy
A MEMENTO TREATING OF THE Rise Progress and Remedies of SEDITIONS WITH SOME Historical Reflections UPON THE SERIES of Our late Troubles By Roger L'Estrange THE SECOND EDITION Printed in the Year 1642 and now Reprinted for Ioanna Brome at the GVN at the West-end of St. Pauls MDCLXXXII A MEMENTO CAP. I. THE Matter and Causes OF SEDITIONS THE Matter of Seditions according to Sir Francis Bacon whose words and Authority I shall often make use of in this little Treatise is of two kinds much Poverty and much Discontentment The Causes and Motives of Seditions he reckons to be these Innovation in Religion Taxes Alteration of Laws and Customs Breaking of Priviledges General Oppression Advancement of unworthy Persons Strangers Dearths Disbanded Souldiers Factions grown desperate And whatsoever in offending People joyneth and knitteth them in a Common Cause These Inconveniences either seasonably discover'd colourably pretended or secretly promoted are sufficient to the foundation of a Civil War In which Negative and dividing Politicks none better understood themselves than the Contrivers of our late Troubles not only improving and fomenting Discontentments where they found them and creating violent Iealousies where there was but any place to imagine them but they themselves were the greatest Gainers even by those Grievances against which they complained Reaping a double Benefit first from the Occasion of the Difference and then from the Issue of it When a seditious Humour is 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 publick tenderness must be so managed that the Majesty of the Prince be not lost in the Goodness of the Person for nothing can be more Dangerous to a Monarch than so to over-court the Love of his People as to lose their Respect or to suffer them to impute that to his Easiness which ought to be ascrib'd purely to his Generosity Offences of that daring and unthankful quality can scarce be pardon'd without some hazard to the Authority that remits them Secret Contempts being much more fatal to Kings than publick and audacious Malice the latter commonly spending it self in a particular and fruitless Malignity toward the Person and that with Terrour too as being secur'd under a thousand Guards of Majesty and Power whereas the Other privily taints the whole Mass of the People with a Mutinous Leaven giving Boldness to contrive Courage to execute and if the Plot miscarries there 's the Hope of Mercy to ballance the peril of the Vndertaking For a Conclusion of this Point He that but thinks Irreverently of his Prince Deposes him Concerning the Materials of Sedition viz. Poverty and Discontentment it would be endless to dissolve these General Hâ—oâ—s into Particular Rules the best Advise in this Case must be General too that is to endeavour to remove whatever Causes them referring the Particulars to Counsel 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 says 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 Vnjust 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 than the Feeling Such were those furious and implacable Iealousies that started the late War which doubtless may more properly be accounted among the Dotages of a Disease or the Illusions of a dark Melancholy than the deliberate Operations of a sober Reason Proceed we now from the Matter and more remote Causes of Seditions to the Approaches and Prognosticks of them CAP. II. The Tokens and Prognosticks of Sedition IT is in many Cases with Bodies Politick 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 point 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 〈…〉 of the World we are past the help of Physick 〈…〉 can perswade our selves we need it Dangers says the Incomparable Bacon are no more light if they once seem light and more dangers have deceived Men than 〈◊〉 them Nay it were better to meet some Dangers half-way though they come nothing near than to keep too long a Watch upon their Approaches 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 Rascal 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 be wary of Dangers without the skill and providence to fore-see 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 Accidents and Affections their proper Issues and Prognosticks upon the true judgment of which Circumstances depends the Life and Safety of the Publick 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 news often running up and down and hastily imbraced 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 Libels were not only the Fore-runners but in a high Degree the Causes of our late Troubles and what were the frequent open and licentious Discourses of Cloak-men in Pulpits but the ill-boding Play of Porpisces before a Tempest We may remember also the false News of Plots agninst the Religion and Liberties of the Nation and how the King was charg'd as an Abetter of the Design We may remember likewise how the Irish Blood was cast upon the Account 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 Greediness they were swallow'd nor what ensu'd upon it If we look well about us we may find this Kingdom at this Instant labouring under the same Distempers the Press as busie and as bold Sermons as factious Pamphlets as seditious the Government defam'd The Lectures of the Faction are throng'd with pretended Converts and scandalous Reports against the King and State are as currant now as they were twenty years ago 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 Cavelling upon Mandates and Directions is a kind of shaking off 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 step 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 accountable to their Subjects To Excuse is a Degree worse for that 's no other than a Refusal of Obedience in a Tacit Regard either of an unjust Command or of an unlawful 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 Wickedness to Another our late Reformers Travel'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 vilifying 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 Schismatical 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 carried Openly and Audaciously now when the Promoters and Iustifiers of the Murther of the late King are still continued publick Preachers without the least pretence to a Retraction Dictating still by Gestures Shrugs and Signs That Treason to their Auditory which they dare not Vtter 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 knows but These Honest Fellows can come off for Printing and publishing down-right Treason when I have much ado 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 Counsel 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 Counsels 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 little 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 Prognosticks of Sedition enough is said We 'l now enquire into the special cause of the late Rebellion CAP. III. The True Cause of the late War was AMBITION THE True Cause of the late War 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 summ of the Design Pretence and Party This League we may presume was perfected in 1637. First from the Kings Charge of High-Treason against Kimbolton and the Five Members Secondly from the correspondent 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 Saint Giles whereupon ensued so horrid a Tumult that the Bishop was like to have been Murder'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 Council-House and contempts of the Council their audacious Petitions against the Service-Book and Cannons I shall pass over as not belonging to my purpose Upon the 19 of Febru following a Proclamation was publish'd against their Seditious Meetings which they encounter with an Antiprotest and presently erect their publick Tables of Advice and Counsel 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
Faction of the Two Houses Publish'd a Protestation which was but a Gentle slip into the Prerogative Royal to try their Interest and by degrees to inure the People to their intended and succeeding Usurpations Some four or five days after were signed those Two Fatal Bills for the Death of the Earl of Strafford and the Perpetuity of the Parliament And having now gain'd leave to sit as long as they please they have little futther to ask but that they may likewise do what they list Where Loyalty was made a Crime 't was fit Rebellion should pass for a Vertue Upon which suitable equity the Scots were Justified and Voted our Dear Brethren 300000 l. in Iune 1641 and Six-score thousand more in August following and so we Parted In this Perplexity of Affairs the King takes a Journey into Scotland it possible to secure an Interest there but the Conspiracy was gone too far to be composed by Gentleness Upon his Majesties Departure the Houses Adjourn and during the Recess appoint a standing Committee and They forsooth must have a Guard for fear of their own Shadows In which Interval of the King's Absence the Usurpers lost no time as appear'd by their readiness to Entertain him at his Return When the first Present they made his Majesty was the Petition and Remonstrance of December 15 which I cannot think upon but that Text comes into my mind of Mark 15.18 Hail King of the Iews and they smote him on the head with a Reed and spate upon him and bowed the head and did him reverence This Impious Libel was seconded with an Audacious Tumult even at the Gates of the King's Palace and it was now high time for his Majesty to enquire into the Contrivers and Abettors 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 Soveraignty and to improve a loose and popular Sedition into a Regular Rebellion Which was a little hastned to even beside the Terms of Ordinary Prudence to implunge their Complices beyond Retreat before they should discern that hideous Gulf 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 pre-judging and distemper'd People These were the means and steps by which they gain'd that Power which afterward they Employed in Opposition to those very ends for which they sware they Rais'd it leaving us neither Church nor King nor Law nor Parliaments nor Properties nor Freedoms Behold the Blessed Reformation Wee 'l slip the War 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 Blood and Treason maintain'd by Tyranny the Object of a General Curse and Horrour both of God and Nature only Vnited 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 stop Vsurpers are not rais'd by Miracle nor cast down by Thunder but by our Crimes or Follies they are Exalted and Then by the Fatuity 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 Vs The Presbyterians having first asserted the Peoples Cause against the Prerogative and attempting afterwards to Establish Themselves by using Pregogative-Arguments against the People found it a harder matter to Erect an Aristocracy upon a Popular Foundation than to subvert a Monarchy upon a Popular Pretence or to dispose the Multitude whom they themselves had Declar'd to be the Supream Power to lay down their Authority at the Feet of their Servants In fine they had great Difficulties to struggle with and more than 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 Rebound of their own Reasonings they Quitted to the Independent Thus departed the Formal Bauble Presbytery succeeded for the next Four years by the Phanaticism 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 compleat their Tyranny over the Kings Best Subjects and their Vsurpations 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 Betwixt these Rival States pass'd Six Encounters in 1652. most of them Fierce and Bloody 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 rais'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 Delays by Cromwell who with his Officers a while after Summon a new Representative and Constitute a new Counsel 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 Marriages was Theirs they pass'd likewise an Act for an Assessment 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 divers 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 usual Decemb. 12. he that they call'd their Speaker took the Chayr 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 gracious 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 Liberty 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 Counsel of 21. the Quorum 13. By whom immediately upon the Death of the present Protector should be chosen one to succeed him always 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 Vsurping Tyrant we 'l 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 succeding greatness It was the Impression of That Vote that baffled and purg'd the House in 47. Forced it in 48. and Disolv'd it in 53. after which he call'd Another that dy'd Fe lo de fe and Bequeathed to his Excellency the Government Had the Devill himself destroy'd that Faction the Nation would have Thank't him for 't so 't is no wonder if his Advance was smooth and Prosperous but now He 's Vp how to maintain his Power against a General Odium and Interest how to get himself forc'd to exchange That Temporary Title of Protector for the more Stable Legal and desireable Name of King without discovering his Insatiate Longing for it This is a Point of Mastery and Cunning and Possibly the Thing that break his Heart was his Dispair 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 Causes seeking Rest but finding None At last up goes the Pageantry of a Monarch Cromwell whose Temper Straights and Politicks shall be the Subject of the next Chapter CAP. VI. The Temper Straights and Politicks of Cromwel during his Protectorship THe Character of This Glorious Rebel is no further my purpose then as it leads to a right Iudgment of his Actions and the Confusion of his Adorers Of strong Natural Parts I perswade my self he was though some think otherwise imputing all his Advantages to Corruption or Fortune which will not be deny'd however to have concurr'd powerfully to his Greatness Nor do I pretend to collect his Abilites from his Words 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 Business His Interest obliging him to a Reserve for he durst neither clearly Own his Thoughts nor Totally Disclaim 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 follow 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 Wickedness 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 School 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 Chair 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 miss it In This Distraction of Thought his Iealousie 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 disdain of seeing it limited enters into a restless suspition of his Counsell and no way to be quieted but by depressing Those that Rais'd him So much for the first Difficulty a second follows His Design had These Three Grand Enemies The Royalists The Presbyterians and the Common-wealths-Men the Last of which compos'd the Gross 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-wealth 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 we 'l 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
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 with limitations consistent with the Rights of Parliament and People and that for quiet sake they would transact with the Persons then sitting in the Other House as an House of Parliament during that Session The House proceeded by Degrees to make dangerous Inspections into the Militia the Revenue to look into the Exorbitances of Major Generals to threaten the Excise and finally by all Popular pretenses to engage the Multitude Effectually against both Protector and Army enduring the Government neither of the One nor of the Other Whereupon the Officers set up a Counsel at Wallingford-House the Protector advises at White-hall and Aprill 6. 1659. comes a Paper to Richard from the Generall Counsell of Officers Entituled A Representation and Petition c. importing the great danger the Good Old Cause is in from Enemies of all sorts the Poverty of the Souldiery the Persecution of Tender consciences c. which Particulars they Petition his Hignesse to represent to the Parliament with their Desire of Speedy Supply and Certainty of Pay for the future Declaring likewise their Resolution with their Lives and Fortunes to stand-by and assist his Highness and Parliament in the plucking the Wicked out of their places wheresoever they may be discovered c. The Paper boded a Purge at least Sign'd it was by 230 Officers presented by Fleet-wood Publish'd throughout the Army and followed soon after with a Day of Humiliation the never-failing Sign of Mischief at hand In this Juncture Each of the Three Parties was Enemy to the Other Two saving where Either Two were united to Maintein themselves against the Third and All Three of Them Enemies to the Good of the Nation The House being Biass'd for a Common-wealth and not yet enabled to go Through with it Dreaded the Army on the one hand and Hated the Single-Person on the Other Richard finding his Power limited by the Members and Envy'd by the Officers willing to please Both and Resolv'd to Hazzard nothing becomes a Common Property to the House and Army a Friend to Both by Turns Theirs to day T'others to Morrow and in all Tryals Meekly submitting to the Dispensation The Army on the other side had their Protector 's Measure to a Hair and behind him they Stalk'd to Ruffle That Faction in the House that was now grown so Bold with the Military Interest and it behov'd them to be quick with as the Case stood Then so Popular an Enemy The Members kept their Ground and April 18. pass'd These following Votes First That during the sitting of the Parliament there should be no General Counsell or meeting of the Officers of the Army without Direction Leave and Authority of his Highnesse the Lord Protector and Both Houses of Parliament Secondly That no Person shall Have and Continue any Command or Trust in any of the Armies or Navies of England Scotland or Ireland or any of the Dominions and Territories thereto belonging who shall refuse to Subscribe That he will not disturb or interrupt the free meeting in Parliament of any the Members of either House of Parliament or their freedom in their Debates and Counsels Upon these Peremtory Votes Richard Faces about joyning his small Authority to forbid their Meetings and great Assurances are Enterchang'd to stand the Shock of any Opposition Two or three days they stood upon their Guards continuing in that snarling Posture till April 22. when Richard at the suit or rather menace of Disborough and his Fellows signs a Commission to Dissolve his Parliament which to prevent the Members Adjourn for Three days and to avoid the shame of falling by an Enemy the Catoe's kill themselves For at the Three days end they find the Dore shut and a Guard upon the Passage to tell them They must Sit no more Their Dissolution being also Published by Proclamation His Highness steps aside next and now the Army undertakes the Government They Modell Cast about Contrive and after some Ten Days fooling with the Politiques they found it was much a harder matter to Compose a Government than to Disorder it and at This Plunge besought the Lord after their Wandrings and Back-slidings to shew them where they turned out of the Way and where the Good Spirit left the Good Old Cause that through Mercy they might Return and give the Lord the Glory At last they call to mind that the Long Parliament sitting from 1648. to 1653. were eminent Assertours of that Cause and had a Special Presence of God with them Wherefore they Earnestly desire Those Members to Return to the Exercise of their Trust c. This is the Tenor of that Canting Declaration which the Army-Officers presented Lenthall the Good-Old-Speaker with at the Rolls May 6. in the Evening where a Resolve was taken by several of the Members to meet next morning in the Painted Chamber and There to advise about their Sitting They met accordingly and made a shift by Raking of Goals to get together a Quorum and so they sneak'd into the House of Commons and There Declar'd for a Common-wealth passing a Vote expresly against the Admission of the Members Secluded in 1648. This Device was fa-fetch'd and not long-liv'd but these were Old Stagers and no ill Menagers of their Time To make short they Erect a Counsel of State Place and Displace mould their Faction settle the Godly appoint their Committees and so soon as ever they are Warm in their Gears begin where they left in 1653 Fleecing the Nation and Flaying the Cavaliers as briskly as if 't were but the Good-morrow to a Six-Years Nap. But the sad Wretches were filthily mistaken to think Themselves brought in again to do their own Business for the Army makes bold to Cut them out their work in a Petition of May 12. containing 15. Proposals desiring First a Free-state 2. Regulation of Law and Courts 3. An Act of Oblivion since April 19. 1653. 4. All Lawes c. since 1653. to stand good until particularly Repleal'd 5. Publique Debts since 1653. to be Paid 6. Liberty of Worship c. not extending to Popery or Prelacy 7. A
Time and what farther Summ 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 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 Bodin'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 Lawful Prince for the fear of Slavery should ever finally Submit to a Rebellious Vsurper under the Actual and Shameful Extermity of it This Reluctancy of Humour in the Generality joyn'd with the Particular Vigilance Loyalty and Enterprizings of the Royalists render'd those Courses Necessary at present to the Vsurper 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 Evil 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 Civil 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 War 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 lookt upon as Tyrannical and Insolent and here 's Matter furnish'd for a Civil War 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 forced to spend that humour in Mutiny among our selves which might Otherwise be Diverted by and Employ'd upon a Publique Quarrel A Disgression to the State of FRANCE Upon the Continent 't is Otherwise as in France for the Purpose where though the King Entertains 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 Prudential Ground for 't to Ballance the Power or at least Check the Progress of his Ambitious Neighbour Spain For says the Duke of Rohan in his Interest of France Il faut opposer La Force á 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 despence moins utile estre tousiours puissamment arme 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 Puissunt 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 War 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 Dismal how plausible soever the first Occasion seem'd Where it began or what it was not a rush matter but that by Gradual encroachments 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 Dyed Childless and the Other two were Murther'd by the Practises of Fredegonde first the Mistris 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 Souldiers employ'd by Fredegonde who did as much at last for her Husband Chilperic having first Caused him to Murther his Son Clovis 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 Mayor 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 says 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 Murtherers 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 enformed that the same Hand by which they fell sought His Life also Establishes a Considerble Guard constantly to attend his Person which was both suitable to his Wisdom and Dignity as a Security against
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 doubtfull 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 World 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 deny the only Means of knowing whether it were so or not Is it the Right they Question Take then the learned Bishop Sanderson's Deduction of it Leaving other men to the liberty of their own Iudgments my opinion is that EPISCOPAL GOVERNMENT is not to be derived meerly from Apostolical Practice or Institution but that it is originally founded in the Person and Office of the Messias our Blessed Lord JESUS CHRIST Who being sent by his Heavenly Father to be the great Apostle HEB. III. 1. Bishop and Pastor 1 PET. II. 25. of his Church and anointed to that Office immediately after his Baptism by JOHN with power and the Holy Ghost ACT. X. 37 8. descending then upon him in a bodily shape LUK. III. 22. did afterwards before his Ascension into Heaven send and impower his holy Apostles giving them the Holy Ghost likewise as his Father had given him in like manner as his Father had before sent him JOH XX. 21. to execute the same Apostolical Episcopal and Pastoral Office for the ordering and governing of his Church untill his coming again and so the same Office to continue in them and their Successours unto the end of the World MAT. XXVIII 18 20. Thus far the Reverend Bishop Some will Pretend that This only proves the Authoritative Power they receiv'd by their Mission but no Succession to the Office For That Observe the Mandate Go Teach ALL Nations Personally and Actually they could not do it but in Effect and Virtually 't is out of doubt they did it and How but by their Delegates For otherwise our Saviour Commanded them a Thing Impossible Briefly if the Gospel was to be Preach'd to All Nations which no Christian will deny and if according to the Literal direction of the Order the Gospel could not be Preach'd to all Nations by so few Persons as were Then Commission'd what follows but the Evident Necessity of a Substitution which Delegation being granted clears the Dispute for 't is Indubitable that What Authority soever our Saviour vested the Apostles with the same likewise was from Them transmitted to their Successours Who in the words of his late Sacred Majesty succeed into the same Apostolical Power and Function which the Apostles as Ordinary Pastors had Qui in Dominium alterius succedit Iure ejus uti debet He that succeeds to the Government of another succeeds also to his Rights of Governing And Mark This further that the Apostles Powers and Commissions were granted before the Descent of the Holy Ghost and relating only to matters of Ordinary use and perpetual Establishment in the Church the extraordinary Gifts of the Apostles not at all proving them extraordinary Officers Now how far a Prince may safely either Act or Suffer the violation of a Church-Government of This Authority I am not yet instructed In fine it is most certain that a Divided Clergy makes a Divided Nation and by how much Religion is the fairest of all Pretenses Conscience the deepest of all Impressions Preaching and Praying the most Popular and Publick of all Operations by so much are Disaffected Church-men the most Pernitious and Intolerable of all disloyal Instruments No Calumny being so Plausible as That which drops from the Lips of Persons famous for an External form of Piety No Hypocrites so abominable as Those that Tithe Mint and Cummin and yet neglect Mercy and Iudgment that under colour of long Prayers devour Widows houses c. And no sting so Deadly as That from a Snake in a mans own bosome We have now done with the Schismatick the Active and Industrious promoter of Seditions The Matter he works upon is Scandal either Suppos'd or Real and That comes next In all Invectives against the Church the Scandalous Negligent and Insufficient March hand in hand to which are opposed a Party that stile themselves a Godly Painfull and Able Ministery Thus with the Boasting and Censorious Pharisee does the Proud Schismatick advance himself above his Brethren calling Good Evil and Evil Good imposing equally upon the People by an uncharitable Iudgment and Report on the One side and a fictitious Holiness on the Other Not to excuse all Clergy-men nor to extenuate the Crimes of any of them Iudas his Treason was the Fouler because of his Profession and yet the Eleven were never the worse because of Iudas his Treason We 'l Grant that for a Minister to spend one Hour of the week in a Pulpit and the rest in a Tavern to Undo a good Sermon by an Ill Example and to discredit a Strict Doctrine by a Loose Life is to extinguish the Reverence that is due to the Function and to make Preaching look only like a Politick Ordinance to keep the People in Order Not that the Doctrine is ever the worse for the Person nor the Priesthood the less Venerable for the abuse of it but it ministers matter of Scandal and Exception and with the Simple it passes for an Argument against the Government But as the Habit of Drunkenness and Prophaness in a Church-man is most unsufferable so is it on the other hand a Practice Diabolical to put all their Actions upon the Tent and Skrew up every allowable and social Freedom to the construction of a Scandal As if there were no Medium to be admitted betwixt the Angel and the Brute Are they not Men and equally subjected to Infirmities with other Men 'T is true their Calling is Divine but their Persons are Humane and as much is required in regard of Their Ministery so somewhat also is to be born with in respect of their Humanity Remember there were those that call'd our Saviour himself a Wine-bibber Alas For a Minister to Drink a Glass of Wine in a Tavern is made a mighty business Nay to be only Pleasant and well-humour'd is by some cast in their dish as an Ayre too Light for the Severity of their Profession as if the Messengers of Ioy the bearers of good-tidings to the world were only to be sad Themselves and look as if either They suspected the
Prince is sold into the hands of his Enemies In short Corruption does more Immediately expose a Monarch and Embroyle a Court but Inordinate Begging does more Empoverish and distress a People particularly if the Request be preter-Legall and pinching either upon Trade or Tillage in which cases the Benefit of a Single Person enters into Competition with the Quiet and Security of a Nation There is an Evill yet behind which of all Evills so trivial in appearance is possibly of the most fatall and malitious consequence and That is the Non-Payment of Debts which not only draws upon a Court the most Violent of all Passions Envy and Hatred but upon Monarchy it self a Popular Prejudice 'T is Dangerous in regard both of the Quality and Number of their Creditours They are for the most part Citizens Poor and Many They lie together in a Body meet daily conferring and dispersing their Complaints and Clamours they Break at last and Then they Tumult 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 Vnder-Officers rais'd over their heads New-Modelling or Disbanding is a Thing they do not like and a Publick 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 pass 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 Accounts Either Want of Pay which causes a General Mutiny or Disgrace which more Peculiarly reflecting upon such or such Officers Troops or Parties provokes Animosities Factions and Revolts or Ambition which more directly attempts upon the Sovereignty It may be also Hazardous 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 than from the first Mis-choice or founded in the Iudgment of it Concerning a Standing-Army enough is said in the foregoing Chapter a word we 'l add It is in This Regard an Affair of a Peevish Quality that either a General has too little Power to do his Masters Business 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 it under Command without discovering such a Iealousie as may Provoke him to abuse it Let This suffice as to the Disorders of an Army within it self Another Hazard is lest it be Corrupted into a Dependence upon some other Interest into which Defection it may be partly Driven by the Neglect or Vnkindness 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 Mischiefs a Vicious and Vndisciplin'd Army may Cause There never fails to be an Opposition betwixt the Civil and the Military Power and in like manner betwixt the People and the Souldiery Whom nothing else can Reconcile but down-right Force and Necessity So that the fairest State of a Nation over-aw'd by an Army of their own Country men is an extorted Patience accompany'd with Readiness to embrace any opportunity of working their Deliverance If at the best the bare appearance of a Force be so Generally distastfull 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 be for Choice and Number as both suitable to the Charge they undertake for the Safety of The Sacred Person of their Prince 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 between the Court and City as for the Common Good of Both were to be wish'd and This proceeds Chiefly from a Pride of Blood on the One side and of Wealth on the Other breeding mutual Envy between them This Envy by degrees boyles up to an Animosity and Then Tales are Carried 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 Cross Contrivement These how to tame the Boldness of the One and Those how to supplant the Greatness of the Other Both equally unmindfull 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 Arms at an hour's warning the very Readiness 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 hooks 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 Their first work is to Possess 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
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 Retaining 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 Thing 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 Novel 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 Soveraign 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 Publick and the Better the Man is the Worse is the President Vpon these hazards depends the Royalty of That Soveraign 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 Goodness 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 Restrain'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 'l say 't is all they aime at and truly I 'd believe them would they but shew me 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 Rais'd upon the Ruins of a Prince and Cimented with Broken Vows and Promises If it be thus Nothing less then a Miracle can secure that Monarch that makes this Faction Master of the Pulpit and this King Charles the Martyr prov'd by sad Experience For not a Soul that by the Instigation of Schismatical Lectures 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 sayes he I had not suffered My own Iudgment to have been over-borne in some Things more by others Importunities then their Arguments My Confidence had less 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 Remissness to that Faction These are his words to his Royall Successour I cannot yet Learn That Lesson nor I hope 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 Publick Interest and the Good of the Community Finally Those Perfidious Creatures which at first Petition'd their Soveraign afterwards fought against him and Imprison'd him Refusing him in his Distress 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 Choice appear'd for he Preferr'd rather to Die then Sign Them But to Signalize the Honor 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 Freedom 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 Success 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 be Speech or Writing The first great Hazard 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 Tollerated 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 the Combination If through the fault of Negligent Officers the Distemper be gone too far and the Confederacy grown Strong and Bold enough to struggle with the Law Then Other Arts must be found out either to Amuse Ensnare or Disunite the Faction The Last Resort is violence which must be Timely too before the Reverence of Authority is quite Lost. And let the King himself appear not only to Ask but Take the Heads of the Sedition before the Quarrel is Transferr'd from his Ministers to his Person if he but Stoops he Falls How horrible a Mutiny was That which Caesar Quieted at Placentia Single Unarm'd and with One wretched word QVIRITES Nec dum desaeviat Ira Expectat Medios properat tent are Furores Nor Waites he till the Hot Fit should asswage But at the Maddest Scorns and Braves their Rage As the Resolve was
my Prevention Since the only Certainty of what is Done or Said comes from the Eye or Ear and that the Soveraign 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 Choice of the Instrument is but to say Chuse an Honest man and he 'l not betray you And not to let any man deceive you twice is but the After-game of Wisdom 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 suppress 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 Soveraign'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 Ears of Princes But This is but the work half-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 Ruin him These Offices are discharg'd by Mercenary Persons for Reward and by the Worthier 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 Man's Commission to offer his Intelligence As for Example Suppose a Counsellour of State denyes the Kings Supremacy Shall it be counted Sawciness in a Particular Person to acquaint the Monarch with it We 'l make an end with this That State is in an ill Condition where he that would save his Prince must ruin himself and where One Party is bolder to do the King Mischiefi then the Other is to do him Good It is now high time to take another Step and we 'l stay but a Moment upon it Subsection II. How to frustrate a Combination of Divers Counsellors THe Dangers of a Combination in Divers Counsellors are in Respect of their Power and Priviledges 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 the 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 Faulty 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 Vpper Division but it Commonly belongs to Both only These Beg oftner the Other more and to speak the truth of the business 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 ways of Profit are dispos'd of Recourse is had to Project and Invention which if not very tenderly menaged leaves the King a sad Loser at the Foot of the Accompt Beside that it Anticipates the Prince his Generosity and by Exacting rather then Obtaining takes away the Freedom of his Choice and Bounty The way for a Prince to Help This is either to put a Stint upon the Suitour or a Restraint upon his Proper Goodness 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 Harry the Great of France prohibited Begging beyond such a Limit Let him farther have a Particular care of Persons that grow Proud upon his Favours The same weakness of mind that makes them Proud will quickly make them Sawcy 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 unless timely look'd after and Then the Publike may be the Better for them And 't is no ill Policy in some Cases to let Them Squeeze for a while that they may be worth the Squeezing Themselves for no Supply is more acceptable to the Generality then That which is Levy'd upon their Oppressors The miserable Consequence of Ill-Payment we have briefly touch'd upon Pag. 73. The Reason of Ill-Payment is commonly Ill-Pay and Many must needs get Nothing when a Few get All from which vast Inequality arise Factions and Want The best Remedy for This Evil is first to Enable Them to Pay and then to leave them to the Law if they Refuse For Protections are only so far Necessary to the Dignity of a Court as they consist with the Peace and Iustice of a Nation that the Priviledge appear not an Affront to the Law When a Court Pays Ill it had need Live Well for when People are Poor they grow Conscientious and for want of Money apply themselves to hearken after Religion The Severest of all Reformers