Clergy or feare of refunding the profits made of Abby Lands did offer to cover her blemishes with the Crowne must conclude there could be no better refuge for her in prudence then to side with such as did maintaine the Church of Rome it selfe to be Basterdized And for the dangers probability might threaten to such a totall defection all being avoided by her tyrannicall Father her Councell in whom she was the happiest ever waved the English Scepter thought a dispencing with them lesse prejudiciall to her affaires then the tedious ceremonies incident to a Reconciliation with Rome Neither was the progresse the Protestants made in Germany France and Switserland a small provocation who by letters instigated her to this resolution the hopes of the Councell of Trent not being quite lost because they found a generall desire in all Princes to see the power of Rome moderated And that she was rather throwne by necessity then fell of her owne accord from the Church of Rome appeares by the Ceremonies used at her Inauguration all purely Catholique so as though she was not unwilling to give the new Profession hope she could not be brought suddenly to put the old in despair not indeavouring to bring in a greater Reformation then she found but suffered the Bishops to besprinkle her Raigne with the bloud of some and inrich her Exchequer with the livelyhoods of many more that were so zealous as to desire a review of such errours as they presumed the base ends of Henry the Eighth had let slip And these were then persecuted though of most exemplary lives whose followers God hath in our daies beene pleased to requite with the most miraculous successe that ever crowned the endeavours of an Army And for a farther confirmation that this totall separation from the Pope grew rather in the minds of the people then the Prince All the endeavours they could use were not able to abrogate the ceremonies of Crosse Ring and Surpleece though confess'd by all of no more absolute necessity then what they derived from the breath of Authority But their true end was to discover such consciences as were irreconcilable to Rome unto which they had then and doe still drive on a designe of returning Provided they could by an universall conjunction of Princes bring the Pope to renounce the power he pretends to have over Kings in that which is meerly temporall And if I am not fouly mistaken the too vigorous prosecution of this project was the cause of the murdering the two last Henryes of France Therefore such as hinder the establishing a Free State oppose the most probable way of suppressing Superstition and discovering Truth which in time will by the blessing of God worke it selfe into Vnity I doe not write this out of an humour of singularity or to cast dirt upon the Memory of Queene Elizabeth who in my opinion deserves to be celebrated above all the Princes I ever heard of but to manifest this truth That Monarchs look upon all Religions with love or disdaine as they find them sute with their worldly concernments The like may be said of most of the Princes in Germany who tooke part with Luther to have a pretence to seize upon the rich Monasteries and Lands of the Church And though humane policy may inject the same thoughts into the minds of Senatours yet purity of Religion is likelier to find friendship among many then one Neither is the small countenance the French give to those of the Reformation under a shallower policy then to balance all partiality which the Pope may be terrified out of a dread of his power to shew the King of Spaine to the French King's disadvantage being allwayes able by their assistance to make the like booty of the Gallican Church as Henry the Eighth did of the English Neither had the rich revenues of the Roman Profession which Christian Princes have long since surveyed as too great a patrimony for a few Priests beene untaken in but that the Catholique King is tied not onely by a contrary but a stronger interest to keepe up the Pope from a totall suppression because he hath nothing to shew for the possession of divers of his territories and the dispensation of so many incestuous Matches but the power his Holinesse arrogates to make any thing lawfull towards God or Man Yet if any desire farther satisfaction Why Spaine remaines so true to the bondage of Rome whilst other Nations are in labour with divisions it may be said That besides the Inquisition her naturall pride and affected gravity renders her proofe against Innovation especially in order to a Profession lesse splendid then her owne being like the Jewes more delighted with well drest Ceremonies then naked Truth Neither have they any generall propensity to the study of Controversies or the writing of any thing besides Romances to which the Roman Religion best sutes being replenished with the high Rhodomontadoes of Saints and miraculous Stories A Monarchy both in Church and State is most sutable to the English Clergy whose maintenance being raised out of the sweat of the Labourer can find none so ready the Pope excluded as Princes to protect them Commonwealths making no such roome for flattery as Kings to whom those Churchmen are dearest and readiest to be preferred by them as having the faculty to discover Virtues where none are and hide Vices where they most abound to which qualities James and Charles were the indulgentest Princes since the Reformation For Queene Elizabeth standing faire in her Subjects opinions was bold to make exchanges with them to their disadvantage The cause the sweetnesse of her Raigne is no more legible This proves it madnesse to expect a pure Reformation under Kings the Roman Religion being in all policy most necessary for them because they have his Holinesse ready at any time as an honourable Vmpire friendly to cement them together by fair means or in case they will not agree to excommunicate the contumacious party No small advantages to Kings who participating of the same vindictive humours with other private mortals fall upon most destructive wars onely to revenge personall affronts As the last quarrell we had with Spaine rose from no more serious a bottome then a misprision the Duke of Buckingham stumbled upon in his lust And the same Kings Expedition to the Isle of Reez had as noisome a source which are things below a Senate not apt to run a madding like unadvised Princes who are distempered upon the least bite of a passion Adde to what hath beene said the vast summes correspondent to the charge of a Court and wanton affections incident to Kings James of England having throwne away upon Dunbarre Carlisle Sommerset and Buckingham only according to computation two millions and you cannot but conclude a Free State the thriftiest Government for the people about whom no such summes can be found but under the hazard of a present or future question Besides consider the excessive expence the Nation would be
Fishing and all other Maritine advantages but by robbing them of Trafick as they had done the Venecians and not only so but give Law to all Christendome by reason of the commodiousnesse of their harbours and multitudes of their ships Yet our bl brethren of Scotland were so liquerish after the dainty shadow of being sharers with us in England by the mediation of a King they meant to have set over us that they let fall the substance of as great a felicity of their own having Sea roome and greater advantages then the Hollander began with or can yet purely call his own To that obvious objection That reason did alwaies concede an advantage to the absolute Jurisdiction of a single person in the field prescribing to that end but one Generall to an Army for feare of divisions upon contrary Counsels and Commands May be replied that no King had ever greater successe waited on his person then this Government hath been ordinarily presented with from her Subjects Who are not only heated with as great a sense of Honour but also moderated by that of Feare being subject to question as well for Victory if attained under too hazardous or improbable an adventure as Losse Whereas Princes take liberty to expose their people without controle upon all occasions and pretences though never so triviall disadvantagious or unjust Neither are Generalls taken up on trust as Kings are in successive Monarchies who have nothing more to shew for their Legitimacy then the word of their Mother nor better Reason and sufficiency for the execution of their Regality then that his Majesties Father had rendred the people miserable before him And here I am constrained by truth to attect That no Nation was ever more blest in the conduct and successe of a Generall then England is now whose valour and judgement hath not only broke through such difficulties for which Kings were wont to Triumph but is become so familiar with Victory as it may seem shee dares not leave Him for feare of being overcome her selfe Neither is the good use may be made of Kings excluded in a Free State but continued as in the Duke of Venice and heretofore in the Prince of Orange c. Who have the custody of such Honours and Ceremonies as are not with decency or conveniency communicable to more then one And such a Prince is not likely nor in my poor judgement fit to be kept from a Common-Wealth Provided his admittance be with that Caution as no trespas may be committed upon the Peoples Liberty Free States have been alwaies looked upon as most auspicious to men of parts Whereas Monarchs preferre a good face the importunate recommendations of a Mistres or their own solitary affection before all the desert attending upon parts or breeding because empty themselves they feare to be sounded by those more sufficient Being as unable to resolve as unconstant in the prosecution of the better councells of others which wise men communicate to Kings with much caution as knowing that what they advise is upon no lighter penalty then their ruine if it be not as sutable to the Favorites humours as their Masters own safety which makes them either conceal their true judgement or comply with such as preferre their single interest before the Publick This renders the best designes of Princes addle exposing their Subjects to a succession of evill events in the midst of their most probable advantages A punishment inflicted upon the generality of Kings for their Murthers Rapines and Blasphemies it being rare for any of them to hold their Principalities from a more legitimate Tenure then Poyson or the Knife their births being so sophisticated by the surer side That they have oftentimes no more of the bloud Royall in them then the consent they lent to their Predecessors destruction hath clog'd their consciences withall And if the possession of the Crowne alone be esteemed sufficient in the sense of the Law to expunge the grossest spots yet found in any that wore it may it not as well charifie a Republick from any imputation can be objected to the means they ascended by It being the custome of all supreme powers to shape their Result to the patterne Prudence and successe hath cut out for them and not according to the fashion of old formalities so little regarded by Princes as the oath was never yet sworne but they have broken nor Stipulation so strong as to hold when they saw the least advantage before them They have therefore the lesse cause to complaine being only whipt with their own Rod or like Haman rather who was the justlier executed because it was upon the same Gibbet he had set up for the people of God Therefore if men will not render themselves deafe to the voyce of Providence in no worldly thing so audible as a continued successe They may conclude what is done is by the approbation of God himselfe He having manifested his power as well on the high and barren hills of Scotland as in the fat and rich vallies of England and Ireland Neither are his blessings wanting in the deepe where our Navies are no lesse successefull then our Armies on the Land Though looked on with an evill eye and cursed by the Kings of the Nations whom the same God hath so weakened or employed as they have had no power or leisure to doe us hurt So as he that after all this shall seem to apprehend more Divinity lost in a King succeeding by Conquest c. Then may be found in a State using as decent a proceedure as can be expected in such a conjuncture and from so many implacable humours and oppositions cannot but be blinded by Passion or some selfeish interest For though Government may be by Divine Institute yet This or That is as indifferent as whether your cloathes be made after the Dutch or the French fashion It being sufficient if They defend us from the injuries of the Weather and This protect us against our enemies and prevent Sin and Disorder the true occasions of all Government I doe not find particular Interests that are usefull and safe much worsted by this change For if our ancient Nobility consider how basely they were trampled upon by those two beggerly Princes Rupert and Maurice who had nothing to beare the charges of their Pride but the charity of those they scorned and the gracious aspect of a Vnkle who could not love them but for his own ends What precedency or Honour could they have expected had the Royall Issue been dilated to the probable number in three Descents it might have attained to whereas now there is no likelyhood any more will be made it not being sutable to Republiques to give honours of that Magnitude Though those few the cruelty of the Catholick King left in the Netherlands still retain the same Dignities and Possessions the State found them in As I doubt not but thâ—se may doe here if the implacablenesse of their Spirits doe not render
are so modest as to confesse themselves and their judgements implicitly contain'd in the suffrages of the Major part though the Law pass'd be never so contrary to their sense And I cannot but admire from whence this Infallibility should at first be derived which were no lesse madnesse for the people to give then presumption in any below a God to receive Such as allow the King a Negative voyce forget they place the Abstract of all the Prudence Power and Probitie of the Nation in one Individuall Juells of too high a value to be packt up in so single and weake Vessels as our English Monarchs appeare to have beene But were they better they might upon this account enervate the gravest results of the Supreme Councell yet denied by Law and Custome the ability to quash the sentence of an inferiour Court of Justice Then if no Example can be produc'd of any King that hath voluntarily and out of no more impulsive respect then meer conscience and indulgency to his poor prince-trodden people offered a Bill to abate the power he found so abused by his Predecessours and not likely to be better employed by such as might succeed What greater Impudence can there be then to maintaine That this Negative vote is claimed only to avoid the abolition of good lawes and to hinder the passing of worse Since it is notoriously knowne that all the customes people complaine of have beene intruded and still kept in being by the countenance of an exorbitant power pretended by Kings And therefore such a prerogative cannot be look'd upon as naturall and convenient but destructive to the very essence of Liberty and consequently void in it selfe In case of Minority Madnesse and Folly the triall of the Kings sufficiency is without question in the Parliament and if that be allowed to determine the extent of his power in contingencies no wayes chargeable upon any as faults Shall wicked contumacious and destructive principles and practises be exempt from their cognizance Since the fool or mad man cannot be lyable to so severe a censure as he that imployes his wit wholly to the destruction of his people And if we trace our Kings through all the paths their incroachments have made over the peoples immunities we shall find it was not Charity hath kept them from being more tyrannicall but Weapons and constraint all our priviledges having beene first written and in all ages forced to be copied out in the peoples bloud An argument sufficient to prove that little is to be expected from them in favour of the Publique but by constraint Kings intending nothing more then the augmentation of their owne Arbitrary power Therefore Flattery rather then Truth fonted them Fathers of their Country to which they are in nothing sutable unlesse in correction the severest and least hospitable part of Justice They indeed as domestique Fathers are oftentimes suborn'd by a particular naturall love to doe that which is destructive to the generall well being of a Nation as where an equall affection to their children shall cause a division of their Kingdome into severall Cantons by which the whole is weakned in regard of the expence of more Courts and expos'd to ruine by division as is not without a precedent in Story Next the affection they beare to their female issue makes them raise great taxes to marry them not onely sutable to their birth but unlimited ambition By which meanes a people are often made subject to the curse of a forrain Jurisdiction And in case it should happen to light upon France or Spaine or any Prince else unwilling to remove his Throne further from the Sun they must run the fortune of Naples Sicily Millan Navarre c. who are so miserable as to be under the Regiment of unnaturall Strangers And say they should be so mad as to follow their ambitious humours in quest of honour out of their owne territories as Francis and John of France did they may like them fall into captivity and tie their Kingdomes to harder conditions and a greater Ransome then all the particular benefits redounding from that government are able to compense or all the inconveniencies objected to a Popular State parallel who are confess'd on all sides to be responsible for their misgovernment in parcell as particular Members or in grosse as the whole Councell when dissolved Whereas the flattering Clergy and Courtiers by perverting the Scriptures have in a single person situated Regality out of the reach of all question so as he may shake or kicke about the world without any feare of other danger then what the Poets faine fell to Phaëton from Jupiter himselfe Which cannot but perswade wise men to keepe it out where it never was and upon all advantages to explode it where misfortune hath brought it in Queene Elizabeth though an excellent Prince yet incroach'd upon the English Liberty by denying them to enquire who should be her Successour The unnaturalnesse of this tyranny being hid from the eyes of the people whose interest it was to know it by the delicate and soft hand she carried over them defective in nothing in their imagination but that it was fraile earth and so subject to mortality which made the Commons winke at the commitment of Pigot and Wentworth valuing the satisfaction of her mind before the Members of their owne Body Neither could they well have found weapons to have revenged this unparallel'd outrage she standing so faire painted in her Subjects hearts Therefore though they did well to passe by a fault they could not punish yet the goodnesse of her raigne cannot be said to expiate the curse she brought in by this example the unnaturalnesse of the Scotch Line tooke advantage of which I believe had never come in especially without Caution but that the feare of the Londoners wanting time to secure their wealth and the basenes of the Nobility tempted them to betray themselves into the hands of those who were ever enemies to this Nation Now if there was so little care found in a Queene raised from a prisoner and goodnesse in a King taken from the barren mountaines of Scotland Who could expect more gratitude then we have found in his Son that to make good his Fathers Monopolies and his own illegall taxes covered the Kingdome with a Sea of blood It is impossible for a Popular Government to be so expensive as these two last Kings though with Ieroboam they should sell themselves to work wickednesse not having whereupon to bestow it without making so palpable a demonstration of their Covetousnesse as the people would soon take notice thereof and redresse it by their change or ruine which might be obtained at an easier rate then by a Warre without which no Monarch though never so bad is able to be removed who commonly hath a power to defend him proportional to his prodigality and the Honours he throws about by which those multitudes who only hope are as strongly taken as the few that enjoy