elective and it behoves not a wise nation to committ the summ of thir welbeing the whole state of thir safetie to fortune What need they and how absurd would it be when as they themselves to whom his chief vertue will be but to hearken may with much better management and dispatch with much more commendation of thir own worth and magnanimitie govern without a maister Can the folly be paralleld to adore and be the slaves of a single person for doing that which it is ten thousand to one whether he can or will do and we without him might do more easily more effectually more laudably our selves Shall we never grow old anough to be wise to make seasonable use of gravest autorities experiences examples Is it such an unspeakable joy to serve such felicitie to wear a yoke to clink our shackles lockt on by pretended law of subjection more intolerable and hopeless to be ever shaken off then those which are knockt on by illegal injurie and violence Aristotle our chief instructer in the Universities least this doctrine be thought Sectarian as the royalist would have it thought tels us in the third of his Politics that certain men at first for the matchless excellence of thir vertue above others or som great public benifit were created kings by the people in small cities and territories and in the scarcitie of others to be found like them but when they abus'd thir power and governments grew larger and the number of prudent men increasd that then the people soon deposing thir tyrants betook them in all civilest places to the form of a free Commonwealth And why should we thus disparage and prejudicate our own nation as to fear a scarcitie of able and worthie men united in counsel to govern us if we will but use diligence and impartiality to finde them out and chuse them rather yoking our selves to a single person the natural adversarie and oppressor of libertie though good yet far easier corruptible by the excess of his singular power and exaltation or at best not comparably sufficient to bear the weight of government nor equally dispos'd to make us happie in the enjoyment of our libertie under him But admitt that monarchie of it self may be convenient to som nations yet to us who have thrown it out receivd back again it cannot but prove pernicious For kings to com never forgetting thir former ejection will be sure to fortifie and arm themselves sufficiently for the future against all such attempts hereafter from the people who shall be then so narrowly watchd and kep so low that though they would never so fain and at the same rate of thir blood and treasure they never shall be able to regain what they now have purchasd and may enjoy or to free themselves from any yoke impos'd upon them nor will they dare to go about it utterly disheartn'd for the future if these thir highest attempts prove unsuccesfull which will be the triumph of all tyrants heerafter over any people that shall resist oppression and thir song will then be to others how sped the rebellious English to our posteritie how sped the rebells your fathers This is not my conjecture but drawn from God's known denouncement against the gentilizing Israelites who though they were governd in a Commouwealth of God's own ordaining he only thir king they his peculiar people yet affecting rather to resemble heathen but pretending the misgovernment of Samuel's sons no more a reason to dislike thir Common-wealth then the violence of Eli's sons was imputable to that priesthood or religion clamourd for a king They had thir longing but with this testimonie of God's wrath ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen and the Lord will not hear you in that day Us if he shall hear now how much less will he hear when we cry heerafter who once deliverd by him from a king and not without wondrous acts of his providence insensible and unworthie of those high mâ—…ies are returning precipitantly if he withold us not back to the captivitie from whence he freed us Yet neither shall we obtain or buy at an easie rate this new guilded yoke which thus transports us a new royal-revenue must be found a new episcopal for those are individual both which being wholy dissipated or bought by privat persons or assign'd for service don and especially to the Armie cannot be recoverd without a general detriment and confusion to mens estates or a heavie imposition on all mens purses benifit to none but to the worst and ignoblest sort of men whose hope is to be either the ministers of court riot and excess or the gainers by it But not to speak more of losses and extraordinarie levies on our estates what will then be the revenges and offences rememberd and returnd not only by the chief person but by all his adherents accounts and reparations that will be requir'd suites incitements inquities discoveries complaints informations who knows against whom or how many though perhaps neuters if not to utmost infliction yet to imprisonment fines banishment or molestation if not these yet disfavor discountnance disregard and contempt on all but the known royalist or whom he favors will be plenteous nor let the new royaliz'd presbyterians perswade themselves that thir old doings though now recanted will be forgotten what ever conditions be contriv'd or trusted on Will they not beleeve this nor remember the pacification how it was kept to the Scots how other solemn promises many a time to us Let them but now read the diabolical fore-running libells the faces the gestures that now appeer foremost and briskest in all public places as the harbingers of those that are in expectation to raign over us let them but hear the insolencies the menaces the insultings of our newly animated common enemies crept lately out of thir holes thir hell I might say by the language of thir infernal pamphlets the spue of every drunkard every ribald nameless yet not for want of licence but for very shame of thir own vile persons not daring to name themselves while they traduce others by name and give us to foresee that they intend to second thir wicked words if ever they have power with more wicked deeds Let our zealous backsliders forethink now with themselves show thir necks yok'd with these tigers of Bacchus these new fanatics of not the preaching but the sweating-tub inspir'd with nothing holier then the Venereal pox can draw one way under monarchie to the establishing of church discipline with these new-disgorg'd atheismes yet shall they not have the honor to yoke with these but shall be yok'd under them these shall plow on their backs And do they among them who are so forward to bring in the single person think to be by him trusted or long regarded So trusted they shall be and so regarded as by kings are wont reconcil'd enemies neglected and soon after discarded if not prosecuted
a rude multitude but permitting only those of them who are rightly qualifi'd to nominat as many as they will and out of that number others of a better breeding to chuse a less number more judiciously till after a third or fourth sifting and refining of exactest choice they only be left chosen who are the due number and seem by most voices the worthiest To make the people fittest to chuse and the chosen fittest to govern will be to mend our corrupt and faulty education to teach the people faith not without vertue temperance modestie sobrietie parsimonie justice not to admire wealth or honour to hate turbulence and ambition to place every one his privat welfare and happiness in the public peace libertie and safetie They shall not then need to be much mistrustfull of thir chosen Patriots in the Grand Councel who will be then rightly call'd the true keepers of our libertie though the most of thir business will be in forein affairs But to prevent all mistrust the people then will have thir several ordinarie assemblies which will henceforth quite annihilate the odious power and name of Committies in the chief towns of every countie without the trouble charge or time lost of summoning and assembling from far in so great a number and so long residing from thir own houses or removing of thir families to do as much at home in thir several shires entire or subdivided toward the securing of thir libertie as a numerous assembly of them all formd and conven'd on purpose with the wariest rotation Wher of I shall speak more ere the end of this discourse for it may be referrd to time so we be still going on by degrees to perfection The people well weighing and performing these things I suppose would have no cause to fear though the Parlament abolishing that name as originally signifying but the parlie of our Lords and Commons with thir Norman king when he pleasd to call them should with certain limitations of thir power sit perpetual if thir ends be faithfull and for a free Commonwealth under the name of a Grand or General Councel Till this be don I am in doubt whether our State will be ever certainly and throughly setl'd never likely till then to see an end of our troubles and continual changes or at least never the true settlement and assurance of our libertie The Grand Councel being thus firmly constituted to perpetuitie and still upon the death or default of any member suppli'd and kept in full number ther can be no cause alleag'd why peace justice plentifull trade and all prosperitie should not thereupon ensue throughout the whole land with as much assurance as can be of human things that they shall so continue if God favour us and our wilfull sins provoke him not even to the coming of our true and rightfull and only to be expected King only worthie as he is our only Saviour the Messiah the Christ the only heir of his eternal father the only by him anointed and ordaind since the work of our redemption finishd Vniversal Lord of all mankinde The way propounded is plane easie and open before us without intricacies without the introducement of new or obsolete forms or terms or exotic models idea's that would effect nothing but with a number of new injunctions to manacle the native liberty of mankinde turning all vertue into prescription servitude and necessitie to the great impairing and frustrating of Christian libertie I say again this way lies free and smooth before us is not tangl'd with inconveniencies invents no new incumbrances requires no perilous no injurious alteration or circumscription of mens lands and proprieties secure that in this Commonwealth temporal and spiritual lords remov'd no man or number of men can attain to such wealth or vast possession as will need the hedge of an Agrarian law never succesful but the cause rather of sedition save only where it began seasonably with first possession to confine them from endangering our public libertie to conclude it can have no considerable objection made against it that it is not practicable least it be said hereafter that we gave up our libertie for want of a readie way or distinct form propos'd of a free Commonwealth And this facilitie we shall have above our next neighbouring Commonwealth if we can keep us from the fond conceit of somthing like a duke of Venice put lately into many mens heads by som one or other sutly driving on under that notion his own ambitious ends to lurch a crown that our liberty shall not be hamperd or hoverd over by any ingagement to such a potent familie as the house of Nassaw of whom to stand in perpetual doubt and suspicion but we shall live the cleerest and absolutest free nation in the world On the contrarie if ther be a king which the inconsiderate multitude are now so madd upon mark how far short we are like to com of all those happinesses which in a free state we shall immediatly be possessd of First the Grand Councel which as I shewd before should sit perpetually unless thir leisure give them now and then som intermissions or vacations easilie manageable by the Councel of State left sitting shall be call'd by the kings good will and utmost endeavor as seldom as may be For it is only the king's right he will say to call a parlament and this he will do most commonly about his own affairs rather then the kingdom's as will appeer planely so soon as they are call'd For what will thir business then be and the chief expence of thir time but an endless tugging between petition of right and and royal prerogative especially about the negative voice militia or subsidies demanded and oft times extorted without reasonable cause appeering to the Commons who are the only true representatives of the people and thir libertie but will be then mingl'd with a court-faction besides which within thir own walls the sincere part of them who stand faithfull to the people will again have to deal with two troublesom counter-working adversaries from without meer creatures of the king spiritual and the greater part as is likeliest of temporal lords nothing concernd with the peoples libertie If these prevail not in what they please though never so much against the peoples interest the Parlament shall be soon dissolvd or sit and do nothing not sufferd to remedie the least greevance or enact aught advantageous to the people Next the Councel of State shall not be chosen by the Parlament but by the king still his own creatures courtiers and favorites who will be sure in all thir counsels to set thir maister's grandure and absolute power in what they are able far above the peoples libertie I denie not but that ther may be such a king who may regard the common good before his own may have no vitious favorite may hearken only to the wisest and incorruptest of his Parlament but this rarely happens in a monarchie not
our loss of glorie and such an example as kings or tyrants never yet had the like to boast of will be an ignomine if it befall us that never yet befell any nation possessd of thir libertie worthie indeed themselves whatsoever they be to be for ever slaves but that part of the nation which consents not with them as I perswade me of a great number far worthier then by their means to be brought into the same bondage Considering these things so plane so rational I cannot but yet furder admire on the other side how any man who hath the true principles of justice and religion in him can presume or take upon him to be a king and lord over his brethren whom he cannot but know whether as men or Christians to be for the most part every way equal or superior to himself how he can display with such vanitie and ostentation his regal splendor so supereminently above other mortal men or being a Christian can assume such extraordinarie honour and worship to himself while the kingdom of Christ our common King and Lord is hid to this world and such gentilish imitation forbid in express words by himself to all his disciples All Protestants hold that Christ in his church hath left no vicegerent of his power but himself without deputie is the only head therof governing it from heaven how then can any Christian-man derive his kingship from Christ but with wors usurpation then the Pope his headship over the church since Christ not only hath not left the least shaddow of a command for any such vicegerence from him in the State as the Pope pretends for his in the Church but hath expressly declar'd that such regal dominion is from the gentiles not from him and hath strictly charg'd us not to imitate them therin I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men will easily agree with me that a free Commonwealth without single person or house of lords is by far the best government if it can be had but we have all this while say they bin expecting it and cannot yet attain it T is true indeed when monarchie was dissolvd the form of a Commonwealth should have forthwith bin fram'd and the practice therof immediatly begun that the people might have soon bin satisfi'd and delighted with the decent order ease and benefit therof we had bin then by this time firmly rooted past fear of commotions or mutations now flourishing this care of timely setling a new government instead of ye old too much neglected hath bin our mischief Yet the cause therof may be ascrib'd with most reason to the frequent disturbances interruptions and dissolutions which the Parlament hath had partly from the impatient or disaffected people partly from som ambitious leaders in the Armie much contrarie I beleeve to the mind and approbation of the Armie it self and thir other Commanders once undeceivd or in thir own power Now is the opportunitie now the very season wherein we may obtain a free Commonwealth and establish it for ever in the land without difficulty or much delay Writs are sent out for elections and which is worth observing in the name not of any king but of the keepers of our libertie to summon a free Parlament which then only will indeed be free and deserve the true honor of that supreme title if they preserve us a free people Which never Parlament was more free to do being now call'd not as heretofore by the summons of a king but by the voice of libertie and if the people laying afide prejudice and impatience will seriously and calmly now consider thir own good both religious and civil thir own libertie and the only means thereof as shall be heer laid before them and will elect thir Knights and Burgesses able men and according to the just and necessarie qualifications which for aught I hear remain yet in force unrepeald as they were formerly decreed in Parlament men not addicted to a single person or house of lords the work is don at least the foundation firmly laid of a free Common-wealth and good part also erected of the main structure For the ground and basis of every just and free government since men have smarted so oft for commiting all to one person is a general councel of ablest men chosen by the people to consult of public affairs from time to time for the common good In this Grand Councel must the sovrantie not transferrd but delegated only and as it were deposited reside with this caution they must have the forces by sea and land committed to them for preservation of the common peace and libertie must raise and manage the public revenue at least with som inspectors deputed for satisfaction of the people how it is imploid must make or propose as more expressly shall be said anon civil laws treat of commerce peace or warr with forein nations and for the carrying on som particular affairs with more secrecie and expedition must elect as they have alreadie out of thir own number and others a Councel of State And although it may seem strange at first hearing by reason that mens mindes are prepossed with the notion of successive Parlaments I affirme that the Grand or General Councel being well chosen should be perpetual for so thir business is or may be and oft times urgent the opportunitie of affairs gaind or lost in a moment The day of counsel cannot be set as the day of a festival but must be readie alwaies to prevent or answer all occasions By this continuance they will become everie way skilfullest best provided of intelligence from abroad best acquainted with the people at home and the people with them The ship of the Commonwealth is alwaies under sail they sit at the stern and if they stear well what need is ther to change them it being rather dangerous And to this that the Grand Councel is both foundation and main pillar of the whole State and to move pillars and foundations not faultie cannot be safe for the building I see not therefor how we can be advantag'd by successive and transitorie Parlaments but that they are much likelier continually to unsettle rather then to settle a free government to breed commotions changes novelties and uncertainties to bring neglect upon present affairs and opportunities while all mindes are suspense with expectation of a new assemblie and the assemblie for a good space taken up with the new setling of it self After which if they finde no great work to do they will make it by altering or repealing former acts or making and multiplying new that they may seem to see what thir predecessors saw not and not to have assembld for nothing till all law be lost in the multitude of clashing statutes But if the ambition of such as think themselves injur'd that they also partake not of the government and are impatient till they be chosen cannot brook the perpetuitie of others chosen before them or if